Mass Dead Effect
by HellKing666
Summary: Humanity has fallen to the Green Flu, yet rose up to face the stars, watch as the Infected fight the Turians and kick their ass, make friends with the outcasts of the Council, and show the Reapers that even if they are a mistake, they are one that drags them to Hell as they once thought themselves part of.
1. Prologue: Humanity's Resurrection

**A/N: I was looking through various fictions one day when I found out that there were no Crossovers between Left for Dead and Mass Effect, when I thought about some of the Alternative Histories of Earth in Mass Effect it suddenly hit me, wouldn't it be awesome if a Charger was to fight next to Wrex, a Jockey chatting with Mordin, a Witch kissing Samara, (forget the last one) the possibilities were bloody endless, and so many different OC's at that, throw in the evolutionary talent of the Infected and we have one heck of a story, so here we are, my first Crossover, BEGINS**

**P/S: Any ideas are appreciated, plus any Parings of different Infected and some Alien's from Mass Effect will be possible, another thing is what Infected will take the place of which Humans in the game, whichever and whenever they may have been born, Enjoy the story!**

**Prologue: Humanity's Resurrection**

_-Bzzz- "If you are listening to this, and understand it. Then I am dead… and you did it, sorry, I mean it that way, killing me and… is a good thing, I'm sorry for what you must be feeling now, I will explain the situation best I can, my name is Arnold Rows, I am… was the lead scientist into the research of the Infected, the Infection had spread to even further parts of the world, the military, were not used to the strange talents of the special infected, they were swarmed, over the next twenty years, civilians had tried to stay alive for as long as they could, you probably know this depending on your lives before" -Bzzz-_

_-Bzzz- "unfortunately, nowhere they could go could escape the Infected, they had been over run, especially since Special's had been producing more lately, eventually, this place became a refuge for the last of the Uninfected, all biologists, scientists, microbiologists, name it, this place had it, but the Infected had an inbuilt radar to find humans, they found this place, despite it being in the middle of a desert, over the course of eight years being here however, we tried to develop a cure, we worked, we tested, we failed… but then we found a way, many protested of course, calling it inhumane and disgusting, it was debated between everyone for a good few months, and then they found us" -Bzzz-_

_**Clang, Clang**_

_-Bzzz- "That's them! Hurry up-" "I know, I know wait want for a second… they broke in in a matter of seconds, cutting through defences like butter, many people died, and now there is only three of us, if any of them are with you, please don't be harsh to them, it was my idea to go through with it" *sobbing* "please calm down Natalia, it's the only thing we can do right now… we developed the cure to curb the animal instinct which drove you to kill, unfortunately… well you probably know now, we also couldn't spread it to the Common Infected because we could only effect the virus through the unique DNA within the Special's blood, we injected it into our own blood stream and we are… waiting for you" -Bzzz-_

_-Bzzz- "I am sorry to put even more weight on your shoulders, but you now need to go out there to administer the cure to other Special Infected, the Common will ignore you fortunately, just get the Special to bite you and the cure will take effect, after approximately five hours the Green Flu will cease to make them do things they wish not to, it may take a year, five, maybe a decade, but then Humanity will be back on its feet again," "Yeah right, it hardly sounds alive let alone human" "JULIUS, do you have any idea what they could be going through! Shut up!" -Bzzz-_

_-Bzzz- "Sorry about that, look you are still human, not monsters so get that in your head, you will have all your memories of before you were infected and at worst you will only have fragments of your life after you were, and as for us… we chose to do this you need not mourn over us" -Bzzz-_

_**BANG, BANG, BANG**_

_-Bzzz- "That's a motherfucking Tank man; I don't want to be torn apart by one of those fuckers!" "Then by all means ask him nicely, I'm sure he'd make do by just beating you to death" "Fuck you!" "…also… I should tell you about our families, we had found out that my mother and sister, as well as Julius's brother and Natalia's daughter are Special's, in order are Jemma Rows, Celia Rows, Jamie Forrest and Rachel Carr, I won't be able to say goodbye to them because I have an earlier form of the cure inside me, so I won't come back with it, there's a chance however that Julius and Natalia will become Special's, but in the case they don't… tell their families, as well as mine, we love them" -Bzzz-_

_**CRASH**_

_-Bzzz- "Here they come, you come, good luck, and god bless Humanity, in whatever shape or form" –Bzzzzzzzzzz- "If you are listening to this, and understand it. Then I am dead…_

The video played again in the background, the computer had a bloody handprint on it, now dried on the heat of the monitor,

The room was like something out of a horror movie, two bodies were on the floor, ripped apart with limbs scattered around the room, which thankfully was dark enough not to see the scene easily.

The only lighting was from the monitor, as it played on a loop, showing four huddled figures in the room, silent except for the occasional cough and rasping breath to be heard, and looking down at the floor in a circle formation,

The first one wore a black hoody with combat trousers with tape over his clothing holding down the puffier parts of the hoody; his face was covered by his hood with only his lower jaw was showing, sharp teeth were protruding from his mouth and the fingers on his hands had a sharpened, thin look to them, giving them the resemblance of claws,

The second figure had boils taking up half his face, throat and also stopping sight in one eye, it ripped through the clothing of his shoulder and down his left arm, the other side of his face was relatively unscathed as well as his other arm, giving him a two-face like look, but the most distinguishing feature was six tongues sticking out of his head and neck, twitching every now and then creepily, he was also the one who gave of a cough every few seconds to break the silence,

The third was female, with a tattered lab coat being her only form of modesty other than a bra and a pair of panties, she had pale skin that glowed a strange red aura that matched her glowing eyes, she was incredibly thin with bones sticking out, she was the most normal one there but with the exception of long lethal claws that were razor sharp and lay on the ground beside her,

The fourth and final figure was huge, he had bulging muscles, was eight foot tall and five foot wide, in comparison his legs were tiny, as well as his head which seemed to shrink into his body, all over his skin were injuries like cuts and bullet holes and an open sore on the left of his chest, he was leaning on his hands in the stance of a gorilla, his knuckles were swollen that showed he did this often.

They did not know how long they sat there, listening to the infinite loop of the last words of Arnold Rows, it was until another round of coughing from the tongue one did the hooded one look over at him,

"You okay there?" he asked, his voice was scratchy and out of use, likely due to the constant screaming he emitted when he was Infected,

"Just *cough* *cough* about" he finished his bout of coughing and looked around at the others, "normal for a Smoker I suppose, so what's your story?"

"Just a regular guy into parkour, survived for two years before I got bitten and turned into a Hunter, hell knows after that, you?"

"Bet you by four years" the Smoker give a grim smile, one of his boils burst from the movement spewing smoke and pus, he winched from it, "I worked in a garage in Vegas, living the sinful life, smoked too much with people trying to get me off them, if someone mentioned I'd be a ugly zombie because of it I would have listened to them"

"Yeah…wait what do you mean?"

"It seems pretty obvious, I used to smoke, I'm smoking now, I think that's how I turned really, and maybe following the same theory, that is how you zip around rooftops so easily"

The Hunter thought on this, "Sound logic got to admit, what about you two then?" both of them looked at their companions, who looked back at them with bemused faces,

"You just came back to life as a being that ate others as food and you are chatting?" The woman asked,

"Well, yeah, what do you expect, woe is me, I ate a bunch of people and I don't remember it, sure it's tragic, but no use worrying over something we can't remember and has happened a long time ago" the Smoker replied, "My names Jack by the way, Jack Harris,"

"Mines Timmy Cobb and you are Natalia Carr, right?" asked the Hunter

"It's Kinsley actually, I was divorced a long time ago…" she looked into space for a while, "I'm sorry"

"For what?" asked Timmy,

"For all of this… the cure, your appearance-

"Don't be sorry"

Everyone looked at the hulking speaker, who had joined the conversation,

"You made a hard decision, more than I can say about some people in Military, I may not be thrilled being the size of an elephant, but at least I am able to understand what an elephant is"

Natalia was silent for a while, "Thank you"

"No problem and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope my own friends are Special Infected, they would probably kill me because I died though" he laughed in a roaring fashion at his inside joke,

"So what do we do now?" Timmy asked,

"What the hell do you think?" asked the Tank as he stood up to his full height, "travel the world, restore people to their former selves, raise a nation from the ashes and find some cigarettes, I went nearly two decades without mine, and after all this, I'm going to need it"

"None for me thanks *cough* I don't want to test it out in this body" Jack said,

As they stood up Natalia looked at the large figure as he made his way to the ripped open doors from his own hands, "But what if they don't accept the change, and think themselves as monsters?"

The Tank stopped at the door and turned his body to face them all,

"Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, and I will cross it this time," he smiled in a humourless as the others gave a questioning look at the giant and they all walked into the hallway, Timmy then realised something,

"Wait big guy, what's your name anyway?"

There was a slight pause as they walked down the hall, bodies were littered on the floor, and some were walking around, some looked at the curious group before moving out of their way on the account of a Witch in their presence,

"Me?" the Tank asked as they made it to the exit, they looked out of the door, to see miles of desert in the horizon, another long walk thought the Tank as he continued on,

"I'm a man, who had a handful of medals and a knee full of shrapnel, and my name is William Overbeck, but you can call me Bill"

**A/N: So what do you think? I will try to alternate between Massively Slaughtered and this one as much as can depending on the views, yet again, school, the house getting done up, it may be a little delayed, but no need to worry, I will update as often as I can, also, what do you think of Bill coming back? In my opinion it was stupid when they did the whole Sacrifice thing with him, and I thought why the fuck not, let's bring the old guy back, and let the Epicness continue.**

**-VERY IMPORTANT READ-**

**Now we got big decisions here, who to bring in, the survivors all died, so no miraculous last human bullshit, it's for my plans in the future rest assured, and what I will bring them back as, any Special you want, shout it, I'll consider, and for anyone you thought Bill would be better as a Hunter or a Charger, lay off, it was the only choice because of the comics, and remember that I will be using both L4D and L4D2 Infected, including the cut Screamer, so wish away, and I will be making every Infected have an increased lifespan to fit into Mass Effect and also bumping up the timeline outside of Earth because of it not being possible to go through an apocalypse and to space in less than two centuries, so watch out for chapter two, see ya!**

**Next time, the Timeline of Infected Earth.**


	2. Chapter 1: A New World

**A/N: It's time for the history of Earth, I have decided to make a few extra Infected, because I realise that after less than a month that Special's started taking form, it's obvious that after twenty years there be new ones, plus I will give Infected Humanity good old fashioned reproduction, with artificial wombs for some that can't have one, so here we are at chapter 2.**

**Chapter 1 A New World**

2030 April: Natalia Kinsley, Timmy Cobb, Jack Harris and William Overbeck are cured from the virus and set out to find other Special's to pass on the cure, this was known as the day of Alpha and Omega forever afterwards, the beginning and the end.

2030 May: The group had arrived at Vegas; the place that Jack Harris had lived before the Green Flu, and cured the first of the Infected outside of Lab 86, another Hunter called Roger.

2030 June: It was discovered that the Infected can actually digest vegetables for food, giving relief to vegans at the time, and also any other foods can be digested like bread and as they did before as humans.

2030 July: All Special's within the city had been given the cure, there was different opinions of whenever this method of curing was 'right' and riots broke out between them, eventually it was settlteled and Vegas became the first Sentient Infected refuge.

2032: The United States of America was now 20% cured from the Green Flu; the first Boomer cured was Gillian Andrews, the first Screamer was Carl Dunbar, the first Jockey was David Barber, the first Spitter was Carrie Warren and the first Charger was Sam Taylor.

With the larger population of Sentient Infected a demand was made for numerous things from the general population, first and foremost was farms with uninfected cows and crops, the Witch population had demanded sugar plantations because of the apparent obsession with the food, also was a round-up of all Common Infected for their sorry state and also items which could be used by Tank's, Charger's, Witch's, and Jockey's because of their troublesome anatomy, a temporary government was made to handle these demands until it became a full-fledged one under the name of The Government of Renascentia, Latin for rebirth.

2033: The G.R. (Government of Renascentia) branched into several different houses that controlled certain responsibilities, Agriculture and Industrial as the normal few, others were recruitment of individuals to join groups of people, such as the Round-Them-Up's which dealt with finding and capturing all C.I. (Common Infected) and storing them in sealable Pens for a possible future cure, the Necro Nurses were ones that help S.I. (Special Infected) who have disabilities with their anatomy live in the world and last of all, the Infection Squad, which helped in bringing Sentience to all Special's.

2034: It was discovered that there were different kinds of Special Infected outside of America through transmissions that were put on a loop across the seas, from Britain there was the Numbskull, the mutations had made their arms long and thin that would hook onto a survivor and with the enlarged, thickened skull would break open their head, so far this was the only new one discovered.

Currently, around 50% of America had been cured, with help now from the Infection Squad; the process was coming along nicely.

2035: It was discovered that Witch's retained their memory of when they had been Infected, explaining why a majority of them are still in depression, it was agreed on from the G.R that actions were to be made to research deeper into the side effects from the cure of the Green Flu.

2038: America was now officially Sentient, and upon this achievement a new group called Connected Infected had been made, with its own website, the aim of this group was to bring back together friends and family who had been separated from each other during the outbreak, the ratio of S.I. to C.I. was 3/5 when a census was made, so there was more gratification than disappointment from the results.

Bill paced anxiously from one side of the room to the other as he waited; he went through Vietnam, faced down three Tanks at the same time and took upon the survival of human life on his shoulders, yet nothing was as nerve wracking as this.

His appearance had changed since he left Lab 86; he still had his hulking size but thankfully the itchy sore on his chest sealed up, after repetitive exercise on his legs he managed to stand up straight again, making him an intimidating height of twelve feet, and his hands stopped swelling as a result.

His body was riddled with bites that hadn't healed yet, from all of the S.I. he had cured, but thankfully his oversized shirt covered them, factory's producing cigarettes were produced so he had one lit in his mouth, his trademark Barnet on top of his head, he found it at the bridge just like he left it, he didn't know how Zoey would react after not seeing him for so long, he didn't want to test her reaction of his suicide looking missions.

The door on the left side of him opened to reveal Carlos, a Smoker who led Connected Infected, he was quite insistent to help the famous American Hero find his friends, and more than happy to help Natalia, Timmy and Jack find theirs,

"They're here" he said, the coughing which was the signature sound of a Smoker had all but gone away from most of the Smoker's bodies, it was unfortunate that Jack was not one of them,

Bill all but stampeded out the door and out onto the street, to anyone before the Infection it would be a horror movie with so many strange creatures walking around, but now it was just normal life.

"I never thought I'd see this place okay again, amazing how humans can adapt"

"Whatever, I hate big cities"

"Is there anything you don't hate?"

"Guns, women and booze, like any other man"

"Wha- don't look at me Zoe, he said it not me"

Bill felt a grin cross his face as he looked at a large van with the words Infected Connected on it, the voices, although slightly different, it was clear who it was,

"Guys!" he shouted at the van, from the right side of it, a Witch stepped into view, while people had been researching into Witch's, they had found that they had high body heat thus making any clothing irritable, and the last thing people wanted was an irritable Witch, and so developed a special thin material that offered no protection from the cold yet provided modesty, this became a common thing for Witch's to wear afterwards,

The Witch herself was sporting a normal shirt and short jeans, her hair was dyed brown with some white Witch hair growing from the roots, and all done up in a ponytail, her claws had special gloves on them to stop her hurting someone by accident, her eyes were not the old Witch red but faintly green instead,

"Bill!" she ran towards him with her arms spread wide, Bill thought in his head how strange it was that a Witch was running at him and he didn't need to shoot it, he opened his arms, ready to give her a big bear hug and then-

**BAM!**

People looked around to see a two ton Tank get dropkicked in the face by an at least one hundred and twenty pound Witch, to anyone else it would look hysterical, but as strange as it may seem, people got beaten up a lot from friends and family for dying, usually the whole sacrifice thing pissed people off, and so they resumed their conversations and chuckled silently as they remembered their own reunion with friends.

"STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" the Witch shouted repeatedly at she rained kicks down on the giant behemoth, Carlos looked on from the side with amusement plain on his face,

"Wait Zoey! He deserves it but lay off for a second!"

Bill waited for a few seconds before he risked a peak upwards, Zoey looked still angry and rose her arms, Bill quickly hid his face again and then felt a pressure on his large back, Zoey was hugging him,

"Stupid, why did you have to die?" she how yelled half cried, Bill heard the familiar Witch's sobbing and looked up again, at her crying face he slowly stood up and pulled her into a hug,

"I'm sorry Zoey" they stayed like that a few moments before stepping back to look at each other, "I see you kept the ponytail"

"I see you kept the hat" she retorted, but her now fake anger was replaced with a genuine smile,

"Isn't that sweet?" Bill then looked at the voice to see a Boomer standing there, even with several sacks of pus hanging on his face, the dark skin, bald head and tie gave away who it was,

"Louis, you turned into a Puker?" Bill asked with an innocent expression, the most he could do with a Tank face anyway,

Louis's smile immediately dropped at the words, "I gained some weight okay, and how many steroids did you take to look that way huh?"

Bill just grinned back with obvious humour before he looked around, "Where's Francis?"

"I'm not coming out!" was the immediate reply from behind the van,

"Come on Francis! We already came all this way you might as well get it over with now!" shouted back Zoey with a shit eating grin on her face,

After some loud grumbling, a Jockey stepped from the side of the van,

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bill fell on his back, making the Earth tremble slightly as he roared with laughter,

"Shut the fuck up old man!" the Jockey named Francis shouted as walked up to them, over a few medical practices, some Jockey's bodies were aligned straighter for people who wanted to stand up right, Francis had it done, he still had the same leather jacket and tattoo, "It's not my fault a bunch of Vampire Humpers got the jump on me!"

"You know you just called yourself a Humper, right?" Louis grinned as he laughed as well, pretty soon, Zoey and even Francis laughed along with them, all of them were together again, and they will be damned if they were separated again.

2038: On the same year, many an Infected civilian walked across the desert of Nevada to Lab 86, after two months they erected a memorial statue there and carried all available cure research to the G.R. for analysing, the statue was of Arnold Row standing proudly, it was constructed from the best artists in the Infected group, with a plaque in front of him saying his last words, 'God Bless Humanity, in any Whatever Shape or Form' a similar ones were set up in all major S.I. cities, but the original one is still a popular landmark to this day.

2040: It was discovered that Steven Hawking had become a Jockey during the Infection, after that people began looking for other possible famous figures that became S.I. as well,

2041: The Spitter variety of S.I. could not speak due to its acid dissolving the vital components of speech within its throat, because of this a charity was formed by the Necro Nurse group, after several months the charity caught the attention of Hawking's and he gave the technology that he had used pre-Infection to help with his speech problems for use of the Spitter, he simply said he had no use for it any longer.

4045: Timmy Cobb reinstated the Olympics, old events such as sprinting and the high jump was deemed to keep its records, because it would be to unfair for it to be broken, Infected versions of the event created new world records, while new events such as the Jockey bucking bronco, and the long distance Spit for Spitter's were made.

2050: After several years of peace for Infected America, it was decided that action must be taken for the world, the Infection Squad grew into a military to take upon the mission to save the rest of the world, and William Overbeck accepted the rank of Lieutenant to cure the rest of the world.

2055: Several surrounding areas were made Sentient including Africa and Canada, a new Infected dubbed a Flamer by the troops, had gained the ability to breath fire because of the Tribes use of various spices and medicine developed by them, this was known as the first time an Sentient Infected had died, a Hunter by the name of Drew Roberts.

2060: While the assault on Great Britain commenced, back home in America, brilliant Scientists created items for lifestyles and living, expanding on Hawking's technology, computers could be used by Tank's and Charger's by using their eyes, the company by the name of Witch Twitch went into business, they went into the business of Witch related items such as clothing, depression depressants and sugar treats, they are a still a popular brand today.

2062: New slang terms and phrases were made between the younger Infected, such as 'Decapp' 'I'm going to die again after this' and 'more jumped up that a Jockey with coffee' it cached on fast and became a popular trend with older Infected, and also blended with Pre-Infection phrases.

2064: The most common jobs were Military and heavy lifting jobs for Charger's and Tank's, finer maintenance for Jockey's, Fashion and Modelling for Witch's, Construction for Hunter's and Smoker's, garbage disposal for Spitter's and Flamer's, and gathering Common Infected for Boomer's and Screamer's.

2066: Media went back into business with hit movies by a Witch called Zoey Kinski, themes ranged from tragedy during Infection, to forbidden romances between Survivor's and Witch's, remakes of Saving Private Ryan and Romeo and Juliet are on the way

2070: At this stage, evolution had taken a big turn for the Infected, Charger's useless left arm was now growing to compensate for the right, Spitter's acidic spit was now harmless on its own skin, Boomers now had decreased mass and stomach problems and the insane giggling of the Screamer's had stopped completely, and the Smoker's boils, tongues and had become less obvious, but the most prominent change was the Witch's, with proper diet and emotional counselling, the Witch's gained immense beauty, a popular fact is a Numbskull from Britain migrated to America after being cured and hit his head on a wall and fainted at the sight of their beauty,

2077: Natalia Kinsley and Jack Harris were married, and became Mr and Mrs Kinsley with their daughter Rachel, S.I. at the time didn't have relationships because of their frightful appearances, but this was the action that broke the ice and allowed for cross-species-variation relationships.

2080: after Europe and Russia were turned Sentient, China and Japan were the last major populations left, so far 78 S.I. had died through the campaign, Lieutenant Overbeck was a brilliant strategist, but he sadly said no matter where you were, war never changes, especially the casualties.

"Where's Rachel? *cough*" asked Jack as he made his way to the fridge,

"She's over at a friend's house for the night, we are all by ourselves" replied Natalia as she ate a sugar cookie,

"Boy or girl?" asked Jack as he sat at the table,

"You know that protective father role is starting to get old, we may not age like we used to but she is over fifty mentally, she's grown up" she grinned slightly at her words,

"But she is still so small!*cough**cough*" Jack protested,

"Oh dear…" she smiled, she then all of a sudden took on a serious face, "Jack dear…"

"Yes?" he asked as drank a Smoka brand cola,

"I…" she looked incredibly shy all of sudden, "we've been marred for a long time now and, I was thinking that we could…" she left the sentence hanging,

Jack was for the first time, incredibly glad for the boils covering his face, because it hid a scarlet blush, he was sharp when it came to things such as sex, and he grew up in Vegas after all, but he was still embarrassed by it,

"Well…" it was suddenly incredibly awkward, "*cough*are you sure… with me…*cough*" he rubbed his sores uncomfortably, he hated them again,

"Jack dear," she said as she stood up and wrapped her arms around him, "you should know that means nothing to me, I love you as you, even if you are a Smoker, I still love you"

They looked at each other for a few seconds before they pulled in passionate kiss, they both got up and made their way to the bedroom.

2081: The first Infected birth, Jack Kinsley and Natalia Kinsley had given birth to the first child after the Infection; this caused national joy at the ability to still be able to reproduce, the child was christened as Tamie Kinsley, also the child had gained the best traits of her parents, her father's tongue, and her mother's claws and beauty, it is now known that any born Infected age until they are twenty before their supposed immortality takes hold, later research revealed that a child would become a hybrid of its two parent's, but would only take one species trait from each one, for instance if a child was born between a Smoker-Witch and a Hunter-Boomer, the child would be Smoker-Boomer, Witch-Boomer, Smoker-Hunter and Witch-Hunter.

2088: A new Infected was found in China that could rapidly regenerate its teeth and fire them from its mouth like a gun, bug bites to a Tank and Charger, death for anyone else, named Land-Shark by troops, Overbeck had now been promoted to General

2090: Research into Infected reproduction took place over the years and many results came through, Witch's, female Smoker's, Hunter's, and other females could conceive and hold a child, all male Infected were able to reproduce as well, however is difficult with completely different anatomy's, Witch's took the news with enthusiasm and a belief had risen that soul mates were real and could be any species of Infected.

2093: Artificial wombs were developed when two partners who wanted a child but could not, for instance Spitter's because their acid and ruined their reproduction organs.

2096: China was cured and Japan halfway there, the last known breed of S.I. were the Naitomeadoragon, which translated into Nightmare Dragon in Japanese, their bodies had grown to the size of a Tank and are hunched four legged, and have a set of claws on both feet and hands, and last of all large wings that made them a bitch to catch so said General Overbeck.

2100: To celebrate the turn of the century, children and their parents all journeyed to Vegas and threw a festival in honour of all the brave men who brought them to Sentience, every type of S.I. was there for it, the men who were remember were the Infected Squad, the first of every different breed of S.I., General Overbeck and his friends, and of course Arnold Rows, his mother and sister given condolences, the band Queen played their new album in his memory.

2102: Japan had been made sentient thus making all major nationalities cured; a decision was made for all countries to unite under one banner and help each other towards the future, Overbeck retired from the military saying that they could take care of the rest themselves, General William's took his place.

2120: Many years past and technology had taken huge leaps, all with the help of scientists with long lasting lives that continued work for decades with no worry of crippling old age, examples of technology was Zero Gravity Energy, also known as Z.G.E., allowing new ranges of vehicle's and a better way of transport for the physically weak Boomer's.

2125: The first space shuttle was launched into space in over a century, to make up for lost time, engineers remodelled the classical rocket and replaced fuel with a Z.G.E. generator, thus making it safer, faster, easier, and reusable, plans for exploration of planets is underway.

2128: The first Infected Human died of old age, a Spitter by the name of Elizabeth, after investigation, it was confirmed out that the woman was ninety-eight before she was Infected, thus showing that Infected Humanity didn't have immortality, just long life spans of one thousand two hundred years, for Spitter's at least.

2130: The hundredth anniversary of the day of Alpha and Omega, celebrations went underway.

2132: The Hell's Angel's motorcycle club that had disappeared during the Green Flu had been reinstated by a Jockey named Francis Knox, they bought their own inter planet spaceship and travel the world looking for adventure.

2135: A cache of data was found on Mars and researched by top scientists, it was discovered that one of Pluto's moons called Charon was in fact an ancient alien method of transportation; several Tank's and Charger's took it upon themselves to excavate it from the moon.

2140: Earth was becoming overpopulated because of the long lifespans and reproduction between species, plans went into making planets habitable to expand into space.

2142: The alien artefact from Charon had been excavated, after testing it, it was revealed to be a network to other ones and allow long distance travel, upon the discovery and Infected Humanity shut it down and researched it more, the artefacts were dubbed Mass Relays, and the aliens were identified as Prothean's.

2145: Steven Hawking, using a mix of his research into black holes and Mass Relays, created a hybrid technology that allowed ships to travel to FTL speeds by their selves, upon tweaking the idea the technology became twice as fast and efficient than the Mass Relay itself; this was dubbed the Black Hole Generator.

2150: Black Hole technology made its way into military, creating the M-490 Blackstorm, the excuse that these weapons were made was that it was possible that there were to be hostile aliens in space, from evidence dug up from translated Prothean data in the deeper parts of the Mars, a race known as the Reapers had been their extinction, further records are unavailable.

2160: By now several planets had been colonised by Infected Humanity, the G.R. had become an inter-space government that took care of all space colonies, it was then later decided that each type of race would get its own homeworld, Earth became central hub of the Infected, Flamer's was Euntanta, Tank shared with Charger's on a planet called Eden Prime, Hunter's also with Smoker's with Elysium, Nightmare Dragon was Terra Nova, Land-Shark was Trident, Numskull's was Benning, Spitter's was Demeter Jockey's was Mars, Boomer's with Screamer's on The Moon, later name Luna, and last of all Witch's was Shanxi.

2165: A research vessel was investigating one of the Mass Relay's when an alien ship passed through it…

**A/N: So… tired…but I must… finish chapter… *collapse*.**

**I hope you understand how hard it was to put all of this together, I had to research and make the puzzle pieces before putting them together so to speak.**

**So what do you think, Steven *fucking* Hawking huh? I decided that if brilliant minds had been alive during Mass Effect that they would excel in space travel, plus Black Hole, who wouldn't use that? I also looked up the First Contact War and already have some ideas, civilians may be reluctant to fight, but I have an idea to motivate them.**

**I also managed to somehow fit all of this within one hundred and fifty years; I'm amazed by myself, I also did my best to fit all of L4D survivors into the fray, does anyone want L4D2 in it, if so, let me know okay.**

**Until then, watch out for Chapter three, the battle of Shanxi.**


	3. Chapter 2: Weeping Witch's

**A/N: Yes the name is a reference to Doctor Who, it was just too good to miss it, I didn't see the comics for Mass Effect so I'm spit-balling here, and making the attack shorter as well, let the ass kicking commence.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Weeping Witch's**

The Turian Captain Janocba was patrolling the Mass Relay's with a fleet of three ships under his command, when he first got the mission a few months ago he was dedicated to it, but now it was starting to grate on him.

He wasn't wishing for something to happen however, he knew no matter how small the job was it helped the Council as a whole, there was workers and soldiers all doing jobs, but he couldn't shake the feeling he pissed of one of his bosses for this to happen.

"Captain?" he shook of his deep state of thinking slightly to look at his second in command,

"Yes Arterius?"

"Relay 314 is active"

THAT woke him up, "Are you sure?" The last time a Mass Relay was opened carelessly had been when the Rachni came to the system,

"Ran it by four times sir, the energy signals show the Relay is active"

"Plot a course to Relay 314! Notify all ships!" He proclaimed to the crew, there was no sudden attention from the crew; after all they were disciplined as teenagers to always be alert, the Turian ship Auluz moved towards the location

After half an hour the Mass Relay came into sight, its tell-tale blue portal glowing from it,

"Scans show that it was opened from the other side sir" informed Arterius,

From the view outside the window he could see several different modifications done to the surface of the Relay, extra coverings and pieces were added to the structure,

"Modifying the Mass Relays?" he heard one of the crewmembers say "they must be real smart or real stupid"

Whoever this 'them' was had also broken Citadel law, Janocba felt his rekindled determination again as he said his next orders,

"It's time to see then how smart they are, prepare the ship's for FTL flight!" several movements were made from the crew as they went to several terminals to type in commands,

"Sir?" Arterius asked, "Shouldn't we inform the Council first, the possibility of first contact-

"Shall be handled by us" interrupted the Turian captain, "we can't wait for the Council to take months to organise a fleet against a potential threat, and we will take care of it, right?"

Arterius looked at his superior silently nodding and saying "Yes sir"

"Good"

* * *

After they went through the Mass Relay they were immediately greeted by a strange ship,

"That's something you don't see every day" a crewmember commented,

The ship was the same size as the Turian's, with the base of it a round sphere with several glowing devices of some kind on the front, back and sides of the it, the most distinguishing feature of it however was several long, tentacle appendages moving erratically as though alive.

The ship itself seemed to be fiddling with something on the Mass Relay, and then it backed off suddenly away from the ships,

"Scans show that there is no Element Zero within the craft, strange, they should have Mass Effect Physics to be able to use the Relays"

A primitive race then, also defying Council law, it was time to put them in their place,

"Charge weapons" Janocba ordered, Arterius turned to look at him,

"But sir-

"Don't argue with me Lieutenant, we are to show ignorant species the price of crossing our laws, charge weapons, and that's an order"

The other crewmembers didn't protest and continued on with aiming the weapons; Arterius remained tight lipped through the process.

"Open Fire!" the captain shouted,

* * *

The Smoker class research vessel Capa had been conducting tests on improvements made to the Mass Relays near Shanxi when they were cut off by the process by three strange ships coming through the Relay,

"Bloat me up and call me a Boomer" said Captain Hail as she looked at them, they had a sleek surface and shaped like a bird of prey, with very big weapons she thought as she squeezed one of her tongues nervously, and the others five were twitching slightly with unease.

"Back off from them, I don't want to risk anything" In truth the thought of meeting another race appealed to some of Infected Humanity, some for the comfort that looking so different was natural for others, but even so the general thought of Reapers planning to invade were putting a damper to peoples excitement.

As they activated the forward facing Z.G.E. thruster and backed off from the intimidating sight, her XO Jerrod notified her on the scans made on the ships,

"They still use Mass Effect drives? A bit underdeveloped don't you think?" her XO gave her a look,

"We were lucky that Hawking managed to survive the Infection, they aren't underdeveloped, all they did just took a different path of research is all, we can't think that every species is underdeveloped because they haven't controlled Black Holes yet"

"Sorry" answered Hail back sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head, Jerrod shook his head,

A new set of scans came through, "They are charging Mass Effect weapons"

Hail would have scoffed at Mass Effect weapons if it hadn't been for where she was right now, "But we didn't do anything, did we?" she looked around as if expecting the answer to appear, Jarrod face palmed,

"Now would be a good idea to retreat now Captain Hail" he said,

"Why?" she asked clearly confused, "Our U.G. shields will be able to repel them, right?"

**Codex: U.G. refers to the physics of Ultimate Gravity developed by Steven Hawking; Mass Effect fields had been deemed too inefficient for use on military warfare, and so Ultimate Gravity had been tested, using the compressed energy of a Black Hole had made a repulsing energy field the equivalent of the Sun's pulling force, the energy required to power it was too incredible however on conventional ships , so after alteration it was downgraded to a fifth of the Sun, it is now a common shielding system that is equipped to ships of Infected Humanity, it also has been proved to not effect anything a meter away from the shields, so it is recommended that they are shut down while docking or landing on risk of knocking other planets out of orbit.**

"That may be so, but this is a matter for the military, even if the weapons are ineffective, we must at least tell Earth about this, fist contact with an alien race is a big issue after all" Jarrod mentally groaned at having to explain, Hail could be a great Captain at times but was always scatter-brained, some of the more lecherous members of the crew commented that all the growing for her brain had went into the length of her tongues, Jarrod shook the perverted thought off quickly,

"I suppose so…" the Smoker captain sighed, "full speed to the nearest G.R. post if you would please Jarrie" snickers from the crew could be heard,

"Yes Ma'am, and its Jarrod please Captain"

"But Jarrie's such a nice name!" Hail pouted as the Capa turned to its designated coordinates and sped away,

* * *

Meanwhile the Auluz had locked onto the strange starship when it had suddenly darted off to the side, and the locking coordinates were lost,

"What the- Janocba exclaimed when it zoomed off into the distance,

"Chase after that craft, don't let it get away!" he ordered, the Auluz swung its body towards the direction the ship had left and quickly followed, the other two Turian vessel followed behind.

* * *

"Captain Hail, the ships are following us" Jarrod informed when they were halfway to Shanxi,

"Can't we shake them off?"

"Easily, but they should be able to guess where we went even if we did disappear from their sight,"

"Hmmmm, tricky situation" she scratched one of her boils thinking,

"I will plot a course for Earth directly using the Wormhole Ring, it should be able lose them"

"Good thinking Jarrie!"

"*sigh*"

**Codex: The Black Hole Generator is only one part to being able to move to FTL speeds, the Wormhole Ring is a piece of engineering within the generator which keeps the Black Hole energy under control, and directs it to do whatever the pilot wishes, to avoid collision with other ships, certain zones are divided between Military, Science, Political and Civilian vessels and using long range 'clicks' based on a dolphin's method of communication to make sure the zones are available.**

* * *

Janocba didn't know what happened, one moment they were chasing after the far off starship, the next it disappeared,

"Sorry sir, we can't detect it, sensors are drawing up a blank" said a crewmember

The Turian captain thought on this,

"Can you look at their coordinates and find out if they were on route to a planet or anything?"

A few commands were put through the terminal,

"There appears to be a planet nearby that it was on a direct course to"

"Then that is our destination, full speed forward" The Auluz then moved towards the unassuming homeworld of Witch's, Shanxi.

* * *

The room was slightly light when Jack woke up, he looked sleepily around the room before his eyes met the peacefully sleeping face of his wife, and he smiled widely before planting a soft kiss on her cheek and carefully got out of bed.

Coughing slightly, he made his way down stairs to the kitchen; he went to a nearby terminal and pulled up the most recent news updates of the G.R., his tongues skilfully multi-tasking as he took several ingredients from the cupboards of the room and placed it down in front of him.

_-and that was the radio personality of Hal and Hock, the universes two wackiest Jockey comedians who lived, and now on to the newest flavour of Witch specialised cookies, with twenty percent more sugar- We interrupt this message for an important newsflash, the Smoker research vessel Capa, had recently arrived at Earth and contacted the G.R., saying that first contact with alien species was made at Mass Relay 314-_

Jack dropped one of the jars he was holding on the ground with a crash, he quickly looked towards the terminal,

_-from what they describe to be possibly hostile creatures, it has not been confirmed, but it is suspected from the general populace that they are Reapers, ancient foes of the Prothean's that was the cause of their extinction fifty thousand years ago…_

Jack didn't listen to the rest as he quickly rushed to the door, it automatically opened, too slowly for his liking, and he looked up into the sky.

As if on cue, a shadow passed over his head and he looked up to see several shuttles passing over head and landing into the outskirts of town,

"EVERYONE!*cough**cough*" he yelled loudly, several people inclined their head in his direction, the small rural town let noise travel far, "INVADERS!*cough*INVADERS ARE COMING!" he pointed towards the last of the shuttles that were flying overhead, people immediately donned faces of panic and quickly ran into their respectable homes, Jack closed the door of his as he heard quiet footsteps of the aliens were heard coming to town, to Hunter's in any rate.

* * *

Desolas didn't like where this mission was going, first they attempted to attack upon first contact with a new species, and now they were practically invading them, as he was a squad leader, he also had to lead the assault, he knew the captain was getting stir crazy, but this was far gone,

"I bet I will get a headshot before you do…"

"Not likely, bet you one hundred credits…"

He shook his head; sometimes he thought Turian training had become lax over the years since he had went to the Military,

There were five squads and eight Turian's in each, they were to secure the colony and take any aliens prisoner.

His squad eventually found themselves in a middle of a town, it looked like a peaceful village, deserted however, the town square he assumed, was circler, in the middle of the spiralling stonemasonry, was a statue made of metal, he looked at it, taking in every detail, he now knew what the species looked like at least, on two legs, looked similar to the physical look of a male Quarian except with five fingers their legs were bent different, it wore a coat which seemed to give it the look of a scientist, his face had the resemblance to Asari, but with ears and fur on top of its head, a mammal he suspected, it was smiling kindly and it also had strange visor of sorts in front of its face.

Below it was a plaque; he couldn't read it because of the language barrier unfortunately.

**Bam!**

All of a sudden, a shot was fired and he quickly turned to see one of the recruits with a smoking sniper far away,

"Hah! You owe me one hundred credits"

"Wha- that is a statue by Spirits! That doesn't count!"

Sure enough, when he turned around he say the statue with a molten hole in its head, Spirits he needed to see the Turian training programme after this and see that they pick up the slack on discipline.

He was suddenly knocked out his thoughts by a growling sound, it stopped quickly as it began and he wondered if he had imagined it,

"If you are going to play unfair…"

**Bam!**

Another hole appeared in the head of the statue, both of its eyes were now melted, he heard several noises akin to growling and snaring and he felt a cold shiver down his spine, after years of training, he knew to follow his instincts to win a battle, so why were they telling him to run?

He then turned quickly and marched towards the recruits,

"Stop that now!" he shouted, he didn't know what the these aliens were like, but he didn't want to face them when they were angry,

The two Turian's however didn't hear him and the first one said, "Okay, see if you can top this" he raised the barrel of his sniper and Desolas tried running at him, "NO WAIT!"

**Bam!**

Desolas swung around to see the entire top half of the head now blown off the rest of the statue,

Deathly quiet followed this, and slowly the increasing sound of animalistic growls was filling the area, the two recruit's looked nervously around at the sound,

Then a door opened in one of the houses and guns were pointed at it, then a creature stepped out and they nearly dropped their weapons in shock,

She was beautiful, Desolas assumed it was a she at any rate, her body was draped in a type of material that hugged every curve on her body, her stomach, face and arms were the only skin showing and seemed to glow beautifully, her face looked as if it was sculpted and the fur on top of her head was long and shining, the most prominent feature was her eyes that glowed golden and watched all of them, not even most Asari could look this beautiful.

Desolas then noticed she was raising her hands, which had some sort of gloves covering them, and screamed,

The pain was unbelievable, the Turian's gripped the side of my head at the bombardment of sound which pieced my eardrums, Desolas then heard a thud noise over the screaming and struggled to turn around to look,

There was another of the creatures, this time a male with a hood covering his face and it was rapidly clawing at one of the Turian recruits pinned to the ground, Desolas tried to aim his rifle at the creature, put was distracted as something wrapped around the other recruit's body and pulled him away screaming.

"Fall back!" the squad leader shouted as he fired his rifle at the hooded figure a few shots hit it and it jumped away quickly.

The screaming was then joined by a second one, and another and another, the sound was so unbearable that the Turian squad struggled to run away, Desolas lifted up the recruit onto his back and ran as fast as he could, knowing he couldn't save the one dragged away.

He ran on, trying to ignore the begging of help echoing in the back of his mind.

* * *

All over the colony, the Turian squads were attacked by monstrous creatures, the hooded ones leaped on them and gave them grievous injuries before they ran off, and others had long tongues that bound team members and dragged them away, it was even heard over comms before they cut out that there was one as huge as a an Elcor that demolished an entire squad it was reported that some of the strange creatures were taken down but immediately when they did their comms cut out after the sound of screaming.

Pretty soon the only squad was Desolas and three of his members, he called for evac, and the Auluz replied they would send one in ten minutes,

Shrieking could be heard coming towards them, the thing was, Desolas thought bitterly, they didn't have ten minutes, he quickly scanned the area and he saw the outline of a door in one of the closest buildings, he decided it was better to risk it rather than stay in the open, he motioned to his squad and they quickly moved towards it.

His prayers to the sprits were answered as the door opened automatically, they rushed inside and the door quickly shut behind them, they listened as the noise went past and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Spirits! Theirs one in here!" everyone swung around to see one of the tongue ones standing at the bottom of a flight of stairs, Desolas acted on instinct and shot the creature in the gut,

**Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!**

* * *

Natalia woke up when she heard a loud crowd charging past the house, strange, she thought, there were no festivals being held at the moment, she noticed her bed was empty and shrugged it off as Jack going to get some breakfast, she snuggled back into the bed to get back to sleep.

**Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!**

She shot up at the sound, that was gunshots, in the house,

She jumped up from bed and made her way out into the hall, she then went down stairs, and when she turned the corner…

_Jack_

She looked at the scene with horror, her husband was huddled on the floor with a pool of blood becoming steadily larger on the floor, she didn't even acknowledge her surroundings, she moved slowly towards her still lover when he was right at her feet, she crouched down and turned him onto his back,

_He's so still_

His constant coughing that she had found to be endearing about him was gone, he was silent.

_He is bleeding_

Then something happened to her that has never happened in over a century,

She cried

Slowly at first, tears started going down her cheeks, then sorrow started to take a hold of her and moans started issuing from her throat, and she then threw back her head and gave an agonising Witch cry, the like that had never been done since the Infection, the sad thing was, it was happening elsewhere as well, other Witch's over town stared down at their lovers bodies, thinking back to when they exchanged vows of love, when they promised to be with each other forever, to raise loving children, and now they were dead, and they cried in pain.

Natalia's head swung down and caught a glimpse of four figures in the room; she didn't focus on how they looked at her with pity and mostly wariness, nor that that they were not Infected Human's or the sound of the actual Human Infected gathering outside.

_That gun is smoking_

_He's the one who shot Jack_

And all she remembered was that her vision faded to black.

* * *

General William's had quickly organised a dreadnought to fly towards Relay 314, he then used the advanced sensors aboard to track were they went, and his dreaded suspicion proved true when he saw three ships over Shanxi,

"What do we do General?" his XO asked, he turned his gave to his fellow Charger, who had a questioning look on his face,

"Since they have Mass Effect technology we can only assume that they have Prothean language with them, send over a message on terms of surrender, if the resist, use the Gravax Cannons on the closest ship, understood?"

"Yes Sir!"

**Codex: Gravax Cannons were developed on Z.G.E., controlled Black Holes had been the most unpredictable thing to use in offensive combat during 2053, after numerous tests, long range the Gravax Cannon were made, the name is misleading, the Gravax Cannon was in fact a transmitter, which could provoke the dark energy which influenced gravity and literally have ships rip apart from the inside, tests have shown that the ships parts are not disintegrated, they are compacted into the size of atoms.**

* * *

Captain Janocba was getting steadily more nervous, it had been half an hour since the ground teams landed, and a quarter of one when a evac shuttle was sent, how was it possible, the scanners had picked up not even a trace of Element Zero, whoever these aliens were, he felt as if he made a huge mistake.

His suspicions were confirmed as a ship came into view.

"SPIRITS! THAT THING IS HALF THE SIZE OF THE CITADEL" Janocba had to disagree, it looked a little bigger than half,

The crew tensed as they looked at the behemoth, a crewmember then looked at his console,

"We're being hailed Captain, they are sending a message" the crew looked at the Communications officer with barely concealed anticipation, "It's in Prothean, do you think it's-

"Of course their not Prothean, they went extinct thousands of years ago!" the Captain declared, he calmed himself slightly "They simply found the language and that's it"

The crew were half convinced at his words; he hadn't been reliable so far after all,

"Translate it quickly" the crewmember pressed a few buttons and twisted a few knobs on the terminal,

"Here it is Captain" A message appeared at Janocba's Omni tool, he opened the file and read it,

_Unknown Race_

You have trespassed, and attempted assault on a non-combat vessel, and suspected invasion of Shanxi, if you do not surrender, we will be forced to fire upon you, you will be boarded by us and you will lay down your weapons and accept imprisonment,

We will let one of your ships be escorted back to your system to inform your leaders of the situation.

From the Government of Renascentia, Infected Humanity

What does it mean by Infected Humanity, why would they say their own race was infected, Janocba however knew he was not the one to ask questions from his position.

"Sent a message back accepting their terms" The Captain said to the C.O. in defeat, he slumped back in his chair as he watched the Dreadnaught get closer to dock.

* * *

**Later**

* * *

"I assume this report is accurate, you investigated a Mass Relay that had been activated and immediately attacked upon First Contact with a new race?" Tevos asked with a level voice, she remained the peacekeeper during most meetings, but there were times such as this when she wanted to rip into idiots like Sparatus did.

"Not specifically us Councillor," the Turian Captain, as he squirmed under the Councils gaze "Janocba was the one who ordered his ship to fire upon them, we simply followed him"

"They must have done something to warrant hostility" Sparatus commented, "We need to raise an army to attack, they could be a danger to the Citadel!"

Valern sniffs, "We shouldn't provoke an unknown species that we don't know the capabilities of, we must send an ambassador to conduct a peace treaty"

"Peace! They took hostage of ships from the Turian Hierarchy!"

"On the account of invasion of their species" Tevos cut him off, "Matriarch Benezia?"

The aforementioned Asari walked into view, "Yes Councillor?"

"You will meet this species and conduct _peaceful _First Contact, if you would please"

Benezia bowed to the Councillors, "Of course Council"

Sparatus looked angry but didn't complain further,

When Benezia was dismissed, she moved towards the docks to her ship after contacting Shiala to meet her there, all the while wondering what kind of race managed to managed to defeat three Turian ships without Mass Effect technology.

* * *

**A/N: Yo, Yo, Yo Reviewers, pretty nice chapter this one, next time, discovery of Infected Humanity, surprises and outrages galore**

**Smokers Codex: Smokers are the result of the Green Flu after it had mutated with heavy smokers, due to the high amount of tar and other results of heavy smoking, the virus had created cancer-like tumours lining across the side of their face and arm and several 'tongues' sticking out several parts of the head, during the Infection the tongues were used to snare survivors and drag them closer to kill, now with the virus cured, all six tongues are known as extra 'arms' for the Smokers, useful when carrying several objects at once and surprisingly strong, able to carry one hundred and fifty kilograms each, the tumours which dotted their faces are now reduced to bearable boils, smoking as a Smoker is frowned upon by others, on suspicion that it would further mutations, the tongues of a Smoker are also an indication of how attractive they are, the longer they are, the better, and are also used by other races as an 'intimate' activity, further information for 18+.**


	4. Chapter 3: I Hate Politics

**A/N: This might be a first, but I agree with Francis entirely on this one.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: I Hate Politics**

Bill had naturally rushed over to Shanxi the moment he heard about the attack, he permitted himself to glare angrily at the alien ships that were in sight when he got there, being made prisoner was too good for them in his opinion, back in Nam, they would have shot Son of a Bitches like that without a second thought, attacking a peaceful colony.

Bill then got a call from his Inter-Connect; he closed his eyes, focused and saw it was from Timmy, he evidently got the same news.

**Codex: Inter-Connect is known as 'Facebook inside your head', developed in 2123, 7 out of 10 went through with the surgery and said loved it, with basic commands, people could sent messages to others within the range of a transmitter, without the need for anything but concentrating on doing so, long-distance relationships have never been easier ever since, some people prefer to use regular devices and terminals however, due to headaches from prolonged chatting.**

_T: What the Hell! Is Natalia and Jack okay!_

_B: I'm checking right now, don't worry, they are tough ones those two, they will be fine._

_T: …Keep me updated, 'kay Big Guy._

_B: I'm landing now, talk to you later Tim._

He opened his eyes and stepped out of the craft; he looked around and wanted to break the necks of whoever did it.

There were body bags, Witch's standing beside them with recent signs of crying, after a quick scan he was relieved that his friends were not among them, and he looked sadly at the civilians, Witch's thought that they could only mate once and that was it, soul mates forever was cut short when it came to war, Bill thought bitterly.

He was then approached by a large Charger,

"Adams, I didn't know you moved here" Bill created his friend, him and Adams had fought in the Infection wars together, Adams was sometimes mistaken as a Tank because of his larger size than the rest of the Chargers, the man right now had an enlarged shirt with the words, 'Eat Me' on it, classical humour he supposed, right now he had his trusty Z.G.E. Mini Gun strapped to his back as he walked towards him,

**Codex: Z.G.E. is also used as an energized bullet supply for weapons since 2146, instead of modifying designs to make new regular weaponry, the military expanded on older designs and made them so that they could use Z.G.E. as ammunition, each shot packing varying amounted of condensed gravity depending on the gun, they are attached to a small generator which takes any energy, such as kinetic, heat and solar, to run it and create more bullets, depending on the combat situation, a soldier could never run out of bullets.**

"Not really, I was checking the place out at the time when those buggers came around, took out four of the bastards when they were running" he looked around at the general populace mourning, "Jesus, I never thought I would see a depressed Witch again you know, and who knew that they could get so violent when their lovers were dead, you should have seen one take out six of them in one run before collapsing in grief"

"Not sure I would want to be honest" Bill replied grimly, Adams nodded his agreement.

"Do you know if Natalia and Jack are okay?" Bill asked with worry,

"We're not sure at this point, there is so much chaos you know, 16 Witches are now widows, and there is a lot of crying even from the ones left unscathed-

Adams was cut off by a Jockey running up to Bill,

"General Overbeck?" he asked in a hurried fashion,

"I retired kid" Bill said shortly, as he looked around the colony "and I'm not in the mood to giving out autographs."

"It's not that, your friend is in trouble, I came to you because you can speak sense to Natalia"

Bill's head immediately snapped to the Jockey, "Well what are you waiting for kid, bring me to them!"

The Jockey hurriedly scurried off and the two giants followed him.

* * *

They arrived at Jack and Natalia's house, which had a crew of medical officers standing outside and a huge crowd of Infected, a Smoker who was the lead medical officer heard the thundering footsteps and made his way over to them,

"It is a huge disaster, the Smoker is alive but barley, it he doesn't get medical attention soon it can be fatal"

"Then what are you waiting for!" Bill shouted at him,

"His wife is not letting us come close, she snare's at us and even slashed at one of the nurses that came too close, we tried to persuade her, but she isn't listening,"

Bill looked towards the door, "I'll do it, don't worry"

"You have to be quick, Smoker's blood pressure may be low, but he can't hold out forever"

Bill nodded and went through the crowd and into the door,

What he saw was unnerving,

Blue blood stained the carpet he bought for a wedding present to them, several bodies lay on the ground that had limbs missing, Bill noted one was still breathing, and strangely had nothing more than a deep bite in its neck, Bill's blood ran cold, he hoped that the Infection wouldn't take to the alien's biology, but he knew it was not likely, the Infection would eventually break through and adapt to the creature, though it may take time.

At the foot of the stairs, lay Jack barely breathing, with Natalia draped over his body, as he drew near, her head rose up and she gave a warning growl, Bill chose to stay within her distance until she recognised him.

She blinked slightly and looked at him, "Bill?"

"Yes it's me Natalia, look, you need to let go of Jack" he was immediately replied with a hiss,

"I WON'T LET HIM GO! YOU TAKE HIM FROM ME!" she then stood up with her bloodied hands rising prepared to strike him,

"Natalia, you know everything about the bodies of Infected Humanity, he can still get help, but only if you calm down" Bill was choosing his words carefully,

She looked angry, "I WON'T LET HIM GO!"

"Do you wish for him to live?" Bill tried for another approach,

"OF COURSE I DO!" she then lowered her voice to a softer pitch, "I love him…"

"Then you need to place faith in others, you need to have someone look after him or he will not make it"

"But…I…can I stay with him?" she whispered her raging face now in depressive begging,

Bill answered with a smile; "Of course you can" Natalia fell to her knees, chocking back a cry, Bill motioned to the doctors and they hurried in and took out several tools.

Bill sat down next to the saddened wife, as they waited,

* * *

Benezia was now going through the Relay to meet with the new species; Shiala was waiting patiently at her side, reading through the reports,

"No Element Zero...Giant Ships…Infected Humanity?" Shiala looked up at the Asari Matriarch, "This all seems a little hard to believe Benezia, if you don't mind me saying"

"Indeed, I myself am finding it difficult to believe, but we will know the truth when we get there."

Twenty minutes later, the ship lurched into regular space and both of their eyes widened at the sight out the window,

"Goddess…" Shiala whispered, outside were several ships that were indeed as large as was described, all with their fronts facing them, as they gazed at the sight, the C.O. walked up behind them,

"A message has come from the other species Matriarch Benezia, in Prothean"

Benezia nodded slightly and regained her composure; she looked at the C.O., "Translate it and put it on screen" both her and her assistant Shiala moved back to the captain seat,

The Asari hurried back to the terminal, after a few minutes, the message came up and read,

_Unknown Craft_

_Please state you attentions now or be considered a threat_

"Tell them we are a representative of the Asari race and we wish to conduct a meeting involving peace"

After a few minutes another message came up on screen after being translated,

_You will now be escorted to the ship to meet with ambassadors there of all the Infected Humanity species, all weapons shall be discarded on both sides for equal trust._

"Equal trust?" Shiala asked in disbelief, "We are coming aboard a ship with only a few combat trained individuals in their system, that's not equal"

"We must follow their demands Shiala," Benezia said, "we will have to for peace to be an option"

Shiala frowned but nodded as the ship slowly made its way forward.

* * *

"Why do I need to do this?" Bill asked as he sat in the shuttle, after Jack managed to be put into stable condition, he got a message from the Captain of the Muscle Head to come to his ship, and be an ambassador of peace, Bill had never done much politics in his long life, so he had to ask, why him?

"It's because you're practically an icon of the Infected Humanity species," replied Olivia Reynolds, the Witch ambassador, "ask any person in our species who they would wish to be meeting with an alien race and they would immediately say you"

Bill shook his, "Why can't the Tank ambassador do this then?"

"Cody is still working on the Eden Prime planetary defences, it's coming along fine but he says that he can't come to the meeting, he was planning on sending Couch over, but he had taken some recruits on a training trip so it wasn't an option, besides he isn't one for debate"

"And I am?"

"You hold authority, and don't take shit from anyone, that is the quality's needed to turn to be a good leader"

Bill huffed but didn't say anything more.

After fifteen minutes they were docked at the Muscle Head.

"So what are these aliens like?" asked Bill to one of the crewmembers, "I saw one myself but it was unconscious"

"Well they aren't the same ones" the Charger answered back, "they look like what women were before the Infection, except blue with tentacles for hair, and no ears strangely enough, their a bit pretty, but doesn't hold a candle to a Witch "

"Why thank you" Olivia replied,

"Try to stay professional now son" Bill joked, the Charger blushed slightly before leading them down the corridor,

"Do they know what we look like?"

"No sir, we thought it would have been better to surprise them" the crewmember grinned,

Bill rolled his eyes in humour; he admitted it would be fun to see their reactions first hand, the muscled behemoths and petite Witch made their way down the twisting paths until they ended up in front of the conference room, all of the other species ambassadors were already there, Smoker's Gianni Sonia, Jockey's Matthew Roberts, Land-Shark's Teak Demy, Charger's Tom Lector, Screamer's Solomon Small, Spitter's Helen Parker, Nightmare Dragon's Chitose Ando, Hunter's Raphael Johnson, Boomer's Charlotte Times, Flamer's Soda Lacchelo, and Hamish McKesson of the Numbskull's.

Bill smiled openly; this was going to be a laugh.

* * *

Benezia was waiting inside of the meeting room that they were given directions to, the rest of the Asari that came aboard were protectively close to each other, after all, the race didn't even show up in person when they came aboard, that was enough to warrant fear of attack,

Benezia kept a level head however, it wasn't out of arrogance of her abilities, she knew that if they had meant to harm they would have captured the ships forcefully, after all they had large enough ships to capture them easily.

Eventually, the large door at the end of the room opened, the Asari, excluding Benezia, tensed up, and the figure came through the door, they looked on with surprise, she looked just like themselves in terms of basic anatomy and was slightly taller than a Krogan, with slight blemishes on her skin and several tongues of some sort sticking out of her head, she had long hair that hung from her head and some unique sort of cloth on her body.

Benezia stood up and walked towards her, the woman did the same, until they met each other in the middle of the room, Benezia raised her hands and held them in a peaceful fashion, the woman looked at her confused until she nodded her head for her to continue what she was doing, Benezia then closed her eyes and concentrated, when she opened them they were black like obsidian.

"Embrace Eternity"

Flashes of images went through her brain, but she ignored it and locked onto the patterns of speech used by the species, when she was finished, she found herself back in the room with a slightly disorientated Infected in front of her.

"What was that?" she said mostly to herself,

"The Asari race have the ability to telepathically read the mind of another, it is also how I learned your language" the woman looked wide eyed at her before shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders,

"I suppose I've heard stranger" Benezia cocked her head to the side in a questioning manner,

"So you are the ambassador of Infected Humanity?" Benezia asked,

The woman smiled in return, "One of them"

Several more people entered the room, a gasp came from the her fellow Asari behind her, she then looked behind the woman and was shocked at the sight,

They were so different from each other; two of them were larger than an Elcor, the first with large muscles rippling down his arms, the second had wings tucked behind its back, one was small as a Volus with a hunched back, another with a round stomach and waddled as she walked, one with a large skull and tentacle arms, and the last one to enter the room was so beautiful that some of the Asari maidens blushed violet at the sight of her, the said woman looked curious at this but instead took a seat at the numerous desks in the room, as did the others,

"I think I should introduce myself now" said the tongue woman, Benezia stopped gawking at the others and turned to face her,

"My race is known as Infected Humanity, that much you know, what you don't is that we have variations of our species, mine is known as Smoker, my name is Gianni Sonia, and you?"

Benezia snapped out of her daze and tried to sound professional, "I am Matriarch Benezia, and I represent the Citadel Council, and we are hoping to clear up the misunderstanding made by the Turian's"

"Misunderstanding?" an angry voice asked, heads were turned to the beautiful woman, "sixteen Witch's had lost their soul mate on a misunderstanding? Unbelievable!"

"I am sorry for Ambassador Reynolds" said Gianni, as she nervously wrapped her hand in one of her tongues, "Witch's are her species by the way, and your soldiers killed off their husbands who fought against them, to a Witch it is like losing part of yourself"

Benezia felt incredibility guilty at this statement, she looked at the Witch woman who was subconsciously rubbing her hands together, both of which were where some sort of thick glove for some reason, as if reading her mind, Reynolds looked at her and without looking, took the glove off showing a hand with incredibility sharp looking claws under it, Benezia visibly paled,

"Olivia!" The Witch gave the largest of the Infected a look, before putting back on the glove without a change of expression, Benezia looked at the large man,

"I'm sorry Ma'am, the Witch's are like one person, when one is angry, the rest feel angry" he then took hold of the small hat on his head and tipped it in her direction, smiling, "It's good to meet you, my name is William Overbeck, I am representing the Tank variation of Infected Humanity, I suppose you have a lot of questions"

Dumbly, Benezia nodded,

"Well, it all happened one hundred and fifty years ago, when Humanity still existed, and the Green Flu came…

* * *

Over the course of the last hour, Benezia and her Asari companions (after they had understood English from Benezia) learned of the history of Infected Earth, including the discovery of Mass Effect physics and how it is commonly not used, the other Ambassadors jumped into parts of the story with comments and their own views, by now Benezia had learned all of the variations of S.I. everyone except the long necked one that had not spoken yet, Benezia noticed this and asked why,

"That is Helen Parker, her variation is known as Spitter, it is much like the Boomer class except her body produces acid, unfortunately, this affected most of her internal organs including the ones to speak" the Jockey Matthew answered, "she doesn't speak much"

"_I am sor-ry to have kept sil-ent for so long," _She said in a robotic voice, _"I don't ha-ve much to con-tri-bute to the meet-ing"_

Benezia looked to Bill, "She is using a piece of tech that allows her to speak, a type of computer image is placed in front of her eyes that only she can see, it allows for her to select words to say and say it out in a voice, a special type of surgery for them you see, we are working on fixing their organs so they can speak again, but it may take time"

Benezia had heard a lot through this conversation, it was quite hard to get over the things they said, after all it was quite unbelievable, but she was quite interested in this species, they had technology that surpassed even the Prothean's Mass Relays, it would be foolish to have them as an enemy,

"We may be able to help you"

Bill looked at her questionably, "How?"

"With the resources given by the Council, you could work on ways to help your species in many ways, and in return, you can trade your files of technology"

Bill scratched his head, "Maybe… but others may not be too thrilled at the idea"

"Damn right you are!" Olivia burst out, "why should we give these Turian's even more killing weapons, maybe there would be a repeat of what happened at Shanxi, more Witch's losing their lovers, we can only mate once, and that is our way of life"

"But that sounds so wasteful," Shiala interjected, "you must mourn over previous loves, yes but to let rule your life, especially one so long, is saddening"

"This is not some whim that has lasted a few months" Olivia fumed, "ever since the first Infected births we have dreamed of that perfect one, that one we can live our long life's together, maybe it's okay for others to throw them away like old snot rags when they are done, but for us, it is a commitment, and that one we will follow through"

Shiala glared with anger, but Benezia calmed her down by placing her hand on Shiala's shoulder, "We must respect other customs, so what do you think on the terms of an alliance between the G.R. and the Council"

All of the S.I. Ambassadors looked at each other, Bill finally spoke up and said "We may need some time to think on that, mixed opinions you understand"

Benezia nodded slightly, "We will wait in our ship then, until you make your verdict"

"You may be dismissed then, Matriarch Benezia"

She bowed slightly, before leaving with the rest of the Asari out of the door, she permitted herself one glance back and prayed to the Goddess that they would accept it, otherwise, Ambassador Reynolds could possibly go to war with the Turian's, and the Council races would then get involved, along with the G.R.

Benezia then realised she was weak at the knees because of the stress, she then decided the moment she got back to her office, she would have a drink of Elasa from her private cabinet.

* * *

**A/N: How do you like them apples, huh?**

**-Important, Read This-**

**Basically, I got the proper encounter through, it's all quite fascinating if I do say so myself, but now this is your decision coming, and I am not sure how I would make a war however cool it may be, so let's just say that is not an option.**

**Out of these three or any possible suggestions, which one should be the G.R.'s decision?  
**

**1. Infected Humanity makes an alliance with the Council and works on numerous projects co-developed with other aliens there, Turian's later due to shaky relations.**

**2. Infected Humanity demands higher reparation for Shanxi from the Turian's and the relations between the two species with be shakier than before, but resources from the Turian's will offer blooming new advancements that kick-start a new set of projects exclusively for the S.I.'s.**

**3. Infected Humanity does not ally with the Council and they keep to their respective areas of space, military may expand due to fear of possible invasion.**

**And also we have an early Shepard look through, anything involving her home, military history, attitude, other half of species and romance, let me know! Also remember, she is already going to be a female.**

**P/S: For romance, I will step over the cannon and stomp on it while I am at it, Tali can be romanced by FemShep for instance, and love between crew-members as well, well, see you next chapter**


	5. Chapter 4: DENIED

**A/N: Due to popular demand…**

**Chapter 4: DENIED**

**Witch's Codex: The 'Witch' strain of the Green Flu that affects only females, the extent of the Infection was thin bodies and pale complexion, due to increased body heat the host would rip off any articles of clothing to cool down, fingers elongated into sharp lethal claws that cut easily through flesh and bone, the Witch strain also made the victim hide in a dark corner and cry uncontrollably, if they were to be disturbed they would be aggravated and try and kill the offender, the strain of the virus is caused by the increased emotions of depression under the X chromosome, now after the Green Flu had been cured, it was revealed that the Witch's crying was not a method to lure Survivors but because a small amount of conscience still lived and caused the individual to fall into deeper despair, known as 'Sirens of the Stars' by other races, they now possess incredible beauty, numerous luxury items were made for Witch's due to their biological changes, such as sugar addiction and increased body temperature, they obtained the belief of **_**Aeternae Amatores, **_**Eternal Lovers, believing when they find their lover that it will be the only one they have for life, due to this there is no discrimination to different Infected anatomy, despite difficulties, more details on the Infected Relationships section.**

"We have made our decision"

Benezia had waited and hour for the Ambassadors to answer to a potential alliance, she refrained from alcohol due to the fact she was on a political mission, barley however.

She was contacted by holograms from the ship Muscle Head, all of the ambassadors lined the room, their appearances shocking the crew that didn't come aboard,

Bill then shuffled uncomfortably on the spot as he looked around the room, "We have decided not to form an alliance"

Every Asari in the room gasped at the statement, and even Benezia looked shocked, "Why?" she asked in a slightly distressed tone, if this species went to war there would be to many deaths on both sides, she did not wish to be on the other end of theses behemoths either.

"It is simply because we looked over the files you send us on the history of the Council, to many things have been brought to our attention that-

"Sound like we are getting the short end of the bloody stick" interrupted Reynolds,

"Olivia…" reprimanded the, what was it called again? Oh yes, the Boomer, Ambassador Times,

"Well its true isn't it!"

"Short end of the stick?" Benezia asked, leaving out the bloody,

"Sorry" Bill said as he turned back to the Matriarch, "It simply means we think that it would not be beneficial for Infected Humanity to join the Council"

"Why would it not be beneficial? We have advanced technology that we could trade for yours and-

"Advanced?" interrupted Ambassador Ando, "No offense Benezia, but you use Mass Effect technology, that had been considered by our race, but we believe to use our own achievements instead of ones given to us on a silver platter, no offense of course"

Benezia looked questioningly at Bill, who replied "It means that we use our own path of research instead of relying on others, we invented Z.G.E. instead of taking Mass Effect because we feel secure that if anything bad were to happen that we could simply fix it without worrying about some problem because we invented it, also, it is more effective than what can be achieved from Element Zero, safer as well"

Benezia nodded, she could see the logic in that, "Is there any other reasons?"

The Jockey Ambassador, Roberts, stepped in, "We had read up one of your laws, the one that genetic modification is prohibited, we understand the reasons, but that is in fact a vital goal in our lives as of the moment, so we can't follow it"

"Another thing we heard was the Treaty of Farixen," continued the Hunter Ambassador Johnson, "it says we have to limit our ships, due to threat of invasion of hostile, or idiotic creatures" he glared slightly from under his hood, Benezia knew he was referring to the Turian's,

"But I am sure if the crisis happened that the Council would help" Benezia tried to assure,

"Like they did the Quarian's?" asked the Screamer Ambassador Small, his voice slightly creaky as he looked down upon them, "we read they had been a Council race as well, and your Council simply left them to be driven off their homeworld and drift in space, as well as not doing a thing to help in three hundred years?" he shook his head, "I don't get me started on the Krogan,"

"That was a necessary action!" one of the Asari crew shouted, eyes turned to her, "They were attacking colonies and taking over planets, the Genophage was a solution!"

"A _prolonged _solution" coolly shot back the Flamer Ambassador Lacchelo, "one out of a thousand new born children is to live? It is almost genocide, on the level of Hitler's cruelty if possible for letting it drag on for so long, and even then, at least he had the decency to try and hide it from the public, and kill the adults before they saw their child _die" _The Asari crew member flinched, "it is amazing that the Krogan even bother any more after two thousand years of dead new-born"

The young Asari looked as if she was going to shout more, but Benezia's stare silenced her, she then turned back to the Ambassador's,

"I understand your reasons, but I must ask, would you ever consider an alliance in the future?"

The S.I. holograms looked at each other, and surprisingly, Reynolds spoke softly, "Not in the rear future unfortunately, there are many reasons, one being the Witch population believes in Aeternae Amatores"

"Excuse me?"

"Eternal Lovers" she said with a sad smile, "sixteen soul mates that promised to be with each other to the end of their days were suddenly separated by death, we had to restrain five Witch's from correcting that" several Asari gasped at this, "we are a very loving species you understand, it may be too soon to be friends with the race that caused all this"

Benezia nodded slowly, "I will tell the Council of your decision, you should know, that no species has refused to ally with the Council"

"There is another Human saying Matriarch" Bill said with a smile, "there is a first time for everything, we mean no ill will to the Asari, Turian's and other species of the Council, and I hope that despite the situation, that our species can still live in Council space, the Citadel sounds like a beautiful place"

Benezia smiled as well, "It is, I hope as well that our races may be at peace"

"Also, the Turian ships with all its crew shall return with you, both of them are unharmed rest assured"

They then bowed to each other, and the Asari Matriarch was about order to move out until she remembered something,

"I'm sorry, but did any of the squads that were sent to Shanxi survive?"

Bill's smile immediately dropped and his face was set in stone, after a moment he replied,

"There were no survivors"

2165: Known as the First Contact Incident, may of the Witch's on Shanxi were in a uproar at not going to war with the Turian's, wishing for revenge for their dead lovers, the Citadel Council was similar, regarding this as the first time a species has refused to ally with them ever since the Councils creation, also the general Citadel population was shocked at the supposed appearance of Infected Humanity.

2166: Several top secret branches of Government sprung up at the G.R. that was in charge of research of the Green Flu, which is all information for public use.

Anderson frowned at the Turian lying on the table, he was currently in the most advanced lab of the Infected and was given the job to monitor the alien and wait for the Green Flu to do its work.

He himself remembered the days when he thought himself immune as a survivor, but the virus had adapted and gotten over that barrier, the funny thing was, it was a good thing when it came to the long run.

He subconsciously rubbed both of his Jockey hands together and he made his way out the lab.

He had dictated from a blood sample that the Turian would not become a Common Infected, to many variables in the alien anatomy that would cause a mutation for the virus, he was not sure however if the subject would be able to gain sentience, or for the cure to work at all.

He sighed, it was not easy being a scientist, and you have to deal with so many thoughts that it was a wonder why you didn't run into any wa-

**Bam!**

…

Anderson slowly walked back from the door and waved his hand on the side of it to open, a quick glance around showed that no one was there to witness his clumsy mess-up, he went inside his office.

Using his jumping skills he leaped on his chair and made his way to the desk, on the top of it was several dozen yellow folders stacked on top of each other, Anderson sighed, the G.R. said he could have another two projects running other than the Turian's, and had given him a wide variety of genetic projects of them to choose from, he considered just leaving it to tomorrow, but he then realised it was better just to get it over with and not worry about it later.

He took a glance at the first one before putting it down, it was for finding ways to fix the organs in Spitter's, it was not that he didn't have sympathy, it was just other scientists worked for over fifty years and didn't have any progress on it, he didn't want a possible dead end project.

The next one was more promising, solving Cough Syndrome in Smoker's, even if it was only a small percentage it would make a big help for them, but he then thought that it was too small and simple of a problem for such an advanced lab, he continued to the next one.

He had went through the whole stack, he eventually settled on additions made to artificial wombs due to the meeting with Asari, but he couldn't think what to do for the second one, while he was thinking he looked at the finished bundle and saw a grey folder sticking out from them, he frowned until he realised he must have missed it from the others by accident.

He opened the folder the science, diagrams and the general concept of the idea, he let himself grin slightly at the concept, but it did sound like a worthwhile project, he then decided to take it and went out the room, it was time to rest for the busy tomorrow,

On the desk the folder remained open, and its name was placed at the top of the page in big bold letters,

_Blacklight…_

**A/N: Fucking **_**Brilliant **_**Idea Blacklight (the reviewer), this will play a big part in the future.**

On Shanxi, a great monument was made on the Witch's behalf, a graveyard that held all mates that died in the First Contact Incident and any who would die later, right now a Witch stood in front of her own mate's tombstone, and she wore funeral clothing despite it being nearly two years since his death, Witch's were emotional like that,

"Hello John" she smiled faintly, as she cradled a bundle in her arms, she glanced over to the other side of the graveyard to see a Smoker, and no doubt he was keeping track of her so she wouldn't hang herself.

"It's… been a little while since my last visit" she said slowly, "I was just in the hospital you see, and… you have a daughter John" she removed the cloth from the baby's face as she said it, its little angelic face sleeping peacefully,

"She has your eyes you know, and she is going to do great things, her name… well I took a long time to think of this one mind you, I decided to call her Grace, what do you think?"

She paused as if expecting an answer, she was undeterred when there was silence, "Then it's perfect, her name will be Grace, Grace Shepard

**A/N: I'm going to end the chapter shortly, I will come back soon with a longer one however, see ya!**

**-Very Important READ-**

**I want you to think of what type of hybrid Shepard will be as well as what her life is going to be as well, think well!**


	6. Q and A Mass Dead Effect

**A/N: Okay, I was bombarded with about one hundred and one really good questions on this fiction and I got to say they were good ones, so this is a page dedicated to answering questions from reviewers, for now I will give an explanation on current questions and whenever another good few pop up I will update this page, any questions of what I'm going to do next is will be answered with limited information, don't want to spoil any surprises after all, remember, any questions ask them.**

**-Warning-**

**The following content may be considered spoilers for the story**

**Q and A Page, Mass Dead Effect**

* * *

_Q: how will some of the infected interact with technology (I'd imagine a tank having some difficulties using a keyboard)? –Kriegmarine_

**A: The issue with technology won't be a problem now, with Steven Hawking, they can use computers with just their eyes for selecting things on the screen.**

* * *

_Q: I wonder if the flu can also infect other species? –Warmaster Tzeentch_

**A: I will put in some restrictions to that because we would not want a new epidemic ruining the storyline, but I may make some species compatible with it, and new Infected with it, oh joy ;)**

* * *

_Q: does the head butter act similar to the jockey by getting on the target the delivering them a powerful head but? –keeper of all lore_

**A: The Numskull does not act similar like a Jockey, it has a long reach that grabs a survivor and smacks them in the head while keeping them in a vice like grip, a hug is the best term I can use, like a crocodile has a death roll, the Numskull has a death hug, the closest thing I can relate it to would be the Smoker.**

* * *

_Q: does the flamer have the required materials born or not and if they do can they increase their power by eating certain foodstuffs? –keeper of all lore_

**A: The Flamer has its fire breathing abilities from what it ate in its pre-infection state; take for example a Boomer, it constantly hacks and vomits up puck from its body because it used to be a lot cholesterol in its body and developed into unlimited puke, so the Flamers DNA is twined with the food it mutated from and so is unlimited, maybe they would exhaust after a while but that's it, also, food specifically won't make its breath deadlier, maybe an engineered 'fire up' liquid could be introduced however.**

* * *

_Q: how long does it take for the teeth for the landshark to regrow and does the process require them to imbibe extra calcium based items and if not does the eating of calcium hasten the process? –keeper of all lore_

**A: The Land-Shark had thousands of teeth within its mouth just like a shark, when one of its front teeth get damaged, or shot out, one of the thousand teeth in its mouth moves forward to take its place, the teeth will reproduce in their own pace and calcium products will only help by strengthening them.**

* * *

_Q: does the terror dragon have dragon like skin or simple human skin with dragon like claws and wings? either way how strong is their wings and can they carry other infected in flight with them? –keeper of all lore_

**A: The Nightmare Dragon has scale-like skin, and from looking at it shows it looks like tent material stretched over a thin frame, the wings and claws are the most dragon looking thing on them and due to its strong muscles and large shape, they need solid bone to stand up properly, and so its wings are strong enough to lift up iself and someone else, not a Tank or Charger but maybe two or three Smoker's, Hunter's, Jockey's etc.**

* * *

_Q: i respect the decision to give each type their own homeworld but is it only their respective types on their home worlds or are there other types there as well? also does earth have all types of infected on it since it is the birth of humanity? –keeper of all lore_

**A: Witch's now have a belief of soul mates so it wouldn't make sense that planets were exclusive to the species, homeworlds are to belong to the species so there would be a good amount of them on their own planet, but for things such as different species of husbands or family or friends, they would live with them if they chose to, also Earth has these rules as well, but there may be a large amount of hybrid Infected due to no homeworld given to them or family's to bring them in.**

* * *

_Q: will there be new types of infected over time? -MurphysLaw89_

**A: There may be new mutations that happen due to a child's parents, your Glider suggestion maybe a child of a Hunter-Nightmare Dragon, other than that, no new types of Infected will happen naturally.**

* * *

_Q:Citadel sensors and/or scanners, would they be able to detect any of us? -edboy4926_**  
**

**A: Infected Humanity uses technology that not even the Reaper's have developed, it uses energy from a completely different ****source and so they will be practically invisible.**

* * *

_Q:Will Black Hole technology be used for storage purposes by chance? -Kriegmarine_

**A: I am thinking of a type of technology which reduces the amount people need to carry using controlled inter-dimensional control, but of course this will be a military item because of how complex it is.**

* * *

_Q: is shepard going to be a witch cross with something and who will her romance be tali, liara, alenko...etc - Random Guest_

**A: The only thing I am answering is that Shepard is a Witch, whenever it should be crossed over with something or any funky powers that Infected Humanity came up with, will be decided by you, also, Romance is the biggest thing on the list so if you want someone to get together with another, whenever that would include Shepard or not, is entirely up to you, also I will include allow Non-canon couples to proceed, Ashley-Garrus, Tali-FemShep, which ever whenever BUT NOT BOY-BOY, I have issues with writing that, sorry.**

* * *

_Q:if Sheppard does appear I would have to wonder what he (she) would look like and if either Tali or Liara would fall in love with Sheppard? -thsunami_

**A: I would like to say this clearly, Shepard WILL appear and as a she, and as we can see about inter-species relationship in the games, that it will be no problem for them to love her when it comes to it, she will after all be a full/half Witch.**

**-Any New Questions Review-**


	7. Chapter 5: The Galactic Cold War

**A/N: Time for another Timeline again, I'm going to change a few things happening here and there, just to fit the storyline you see, sorry no Shepard in this one, next one I promise!**

**Chapter 5 The Galactic Cold War**

2166: Media shows a manifesto calling for an army, a Cerberus to protect Infected Humanity from further attacks; Infected Humanity referred this as an illusive man with a possible dangerous agenda, investigations have been made but little evidence has been turned up.

With no alliance with the Council, Infected Humanity entered a slight Galactic Cold War between the military's of both factions.

2167: The Department in charge of the research into Element Zero and possible uses of it have made their first breakthrough with help from information on Asari natural Biotic's and yielded results, when applied to the womb with an unborn child, it may have effects to the abilities of the Infected individual, public is wary on experimentation but there are volunteers.

2168: The G.R. constructed the Arcturus Station to work on issues involving the state of Infected Humanity and alien relations, public view to Turian's are strained, and especially military with all respectable races, but general population has learned to accept them, some were even given permission to move into Citadel Space.

2169: Transports of Element Zero were in a terrible accident over Earth, dust-form Element Zero had affected the unborn children in Singapore, all research into Element Zero and henceforth been regulated, no large supplies of the element was to be brought in at one time.

2170: An Infected Human mercenary group had been formed under the name of the Blue Suns, details of the group were minimal, and in later years recruited Batarian's and Turian's into their ranks.

Ruins were discovered on a flyover of Armeni, one an on the moment decision, the crew investigated the ruins, the most noticeable finding was that of several skeletons of the ancient species the Zeioph, with their skeletons chest bones burst open, further investigation showed the place to have carvings of some kinds of mythical creatures that were described to be, translated from the ancient script, 'creatures of shadow, sounds of claws, last thing to see' any further possible information to be gained from the site was stopped by the Council that decreed that ancient burial sites were to be untouched, the issue had been in court for several more years.

2171: Several Infected visited the Asari Homeworld, Thessia, this included Hunter's, Smoker's and Charger's, after staying a few weeks there, a few had made relationship's with the Asari living there, breaking the ice between the two species and possible marriage between them.

2172: Permission was given to research the children that had been exposed to Element Zero when in the womb, whenever artificial or not, due to possible negative effects that could happen to them when they had grown, the Element Zero within their bodies was adjusted and made into a new variation of it, it was renamed Element Nova, on the account of using pure energy instead of Dark energy like usual Biotic's from other species.

Kieran paced anxiously outside of the emergency room, he had just gotten the news from work that his wife Serena went into labour, he now stood outside the Asari hospital room and being increasingly more nervous with each passing second, as a sure sign of stress from Smoker's, his tongues twitched every few seconds as he paced back and forth,

"Kieran Rimming?" said a calm voice,

He turned his head to see an Asari nurse with an Omni-Tool on her wrist standing outside the open door,

"It's over, you have a daughter"

He followed her into the room, and there sitting with a bundle in her arms and lying on the bed, was Serena,

He walked up and kissed her crest as he sat down next to her, he gestured with his hands to the bundle, silently asking for permission, and Serena nodded and pulled the sheet from the babies face,

A little blue face looked silently out from under the wrapping, she watched Kieran intently as he gazed back with wonder,

"Have you thought of any names for her?" he asked his wife, he had never been good with names so they decided to leave it up to Serena,

"I thought we'd call her, Shena," his wife replied "it was the same name as my father you know"

Kieran nodded smiling; "I love it, Shena Rimming, it sounds perfect" he then looked down at his daughter and laughed suddenly,

His wife gave him a quizzing look, "What's so funny"

"I just remembered that our daughter is practically a pioneer and she isn't even a day old"

It was true, although other Asari-Infected couples were expecting children soon; they were the first to give birth to one,

His wife smiled openly. "I suppose so, but it looks like another reason"

Kieran sighed, his wife could be too perceptive at times, and he picked up his child and cradled her in his arms, the little baby giggled as he playfully licked her nose with his tongue,

"Well… it's stupid really," he looked at his wife and she gestured for him to continue, "you see, barely eight years ago, I thought that is I had ever settled down and had a baby, the they would never be normal" his wife looked at him, "Okay, tentacles and blue skin aside, I always had thought if I had a child that they would have Infected traits," he licked the nose of the laughing baby again, "the point is, I never thought I would have a baby that didn't have claws, or bulging muscles, and I defiantly never thought that they wouldn't have one of my-

He was then cut off as a wet appendage poked his cheek, he froze for a second before slowly turning his eyes to the bundle in his hands, the little Asari child had a long short blue tongue poking out of her mouth and was licking her father's nose, 60 centimetres away, mimicking what he had done just a moment ago,

The doctor watched this wide eyed as she dropped her data pad, Serena's mouth was wide open at the sight of her husband and daughter, and Kieran just stared, shocked at the sight,

"…tongue's" the father finished lamely, before he gave the bundle back to his wife, his eyes rolled into the back of his skull, and preceded to faint and fall backwards onto the floor.

On the same year, the first birth between Asari and Infected had happened, the Asari community, although shocked, excepted the supposed traits of the children between both species, and a while later, was actually celebrated because the drastic changes were incredibly complemented by their species religion, also on the same year, artificial wombs had been upgraded, on an idea inspired by the Asari, they now allowed births between gay and lesbian couples.

2174: N-1 implants for the Nova class Biotic's was tested, all fifty individuals had slight control over the energy in their bodies, slight powers of telekinesis but the real power comes from self-enhancing, the energy would be focused to a point in the body and they would have increased strength, stamina and speed.

2175: Colonisation in the Skyllian Verge continues with competition from the Council race of Batarian's, Infected Humanity looks down on the race due to its legal slavery system, making the possible alliance with the Council less likely in the future, also, the Hell Angel's gang had met with the Krogan on their homeworld Tuchanka, surprisingly enough, after a few weeks stay over at the planet, Francis Knox called the G.R. to let them know that the Krogan agreed to help if any problems were to happen for Infected Humanity, the exact words of one of the Krogan was, 'We can put up a fight, and maybe beat them Hell Angel's for once'.

2176: Several of Infected Humanity's achievements in technology had been attempted by the Council races excluding the Asari; further testing was banned when a moon in Council space had been destroyed by the resulting failure of their attempted Z.G.E. engine.

2177: N-2 implants had been developed, better results than before, but small majority of individuals suffered from headaches of intense pain, after research it was found that if Humanity was not Infected, it would have had several horrifying side effects.

2178: On the integration of Infected Humanity with Council races, a porn magazine by the name of Fornax was realised by a Jockey named Harold Nixin, first featuring Infected Humanity species, until it expanded to other species, Witch's very rarely chose to model for the magazine.

2179: Nova was now classified as a new element rather than a variation of Element Zero; as such a new research facility was built to find out all possible effects of it other than use in Biotic's.

2180: The colony planet Mindoir was attacked by Batarian slavers, although the colony fought back with weapons now legalised in settlements, several S.I. had been captured and taken away.

Julian woke up on the ground, he patted the open wounds on his chest, and groaned inwardly, he thanked whatever god was up there for his muscles that came from his Charger dad, as well as his Witch mother's resilience.

He got up slowly and looked around, he then spied a large chunks of debris that had probably knocked him cold, damn Batarian's.

From the drag marks on the ground, he could tell they were trying to drag him off, from the bodies that had bloody claw marks on their torsos, they didn't succeed.

He walked outside the building, he saw several Infected looking up at the retreating ships, cursing and some crying, he knew this meant some of his kind had been taken, Hunter's ran from place to place, trying to calm down the general population, he decided to do his part as well and helped with the heavy lifting.

As he looked around half an hour later, he heard a deep moaning cry from inside the house on his right; he knew this as a Witch cry so he hesitated slightly, before gently opening the door that had its lock ripped off.

In the middle of the room, curled up into herself, was a small Witch, sobbing loudly.

Julian didn't hesitate this time, as he sat next to the child; it took a few minutes before the young one looked up at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, he knew it was a stupid question of course, but it was all he could think of,

The Witch looked back down again, and said slowly, "M-mum, they t-took her… s-she told me to h-hide in the closet, and… they took her"

The Charger-Witch hybrid nodded before taking her into his slightly larger arm and cradling the young one as she wept.

He later went out with her to see if they could find her mother, but where ever they looked, they couldn't find a Jane Shepard anywhere.

2181: The Quarian Flotilla had come within the borders of G.R. space, requesting to come through the system, they were warmly greeted and received, famous movie director Zoey Kinski had met with some of their species by chance and told them the story of Infected Humanity's history by use of her own films, tours were given to the Flotilla to fully explore G.R. space, and they even excepted afterwards that young Quarian's on their Pilgrimage could come by to collect items for their home, also, due to pity on the situation of the Quarian's, Necro Nurses created a charity to build better living conditions for them.

2182: The program known for research into AI had been discovered to be making actual AI, the Council had heard this and before the G.R. could solve the problem, the Council sent a Spectre into S.I. space and blew up the facility, Infected Humanity was enraged by the intervention and borders nearly became the battlefield of war, after talks of peace were made, the conditions that Spectres were banned from S.I. space and their above the law attitude was not considered to be noted by authorities, it was decided to pursue the creation of AI again legally and to answer the Council's outrage, they responded to say they would not follow the laws of ones that do not abide to proper law themselves, to keep from any issues happening in the future, an embassy was set up between both parties, much to the outrage of other species who had to earn their place over longer periods of time.

2183: Quarian's were uneasy by the research made into Artificial Intelligence by the G.R., but they assured them that they would keep it to a minimum for the sake of them, it had been decided to create a space station to house any Quarian's in a stable place and entirely sterilised, planning and creation of the station was predicted to take a few years, Krogan mercenary's had been a large help in driving back the more severe cases of Batarian attacks.

On the same year, the Batarian species tried to have the Council restrict the colonisation of planets by the G.R., when the Council had refused on possible threat of a war breaking out, the Batarian's closed their embassy and cut ties with the Council, although the Council said publically that it was a tragic loss, there had been rumours that they told the G.R. that the Batarian's were now 'fare game', of course this may have been a rumour that originated from a Krogan.

2184: The MSV Hugo Gemback had disappeared when exploring other planets, after investigation for several months; it was declared to be destroyed, and the crew K.I.A.

2185: N-3 implants were made that were more stable yet most were not as strong as the N-2 class, Nova energy became a new class of energy generators named Star Generators, mostly given to civilian's due to its long power life and due to its ranking less than Z.G.E. for battle capabilities in military.

2186: The first AI was made by humans, using a neural network of information similar to the points of a spider web, similar to the Geth but internally within one individual, named 'Gabby' due to its talkative state and the frequent questions it asked, 'It's like teaching a kid' the scientist's commented.

2187: Batarian's had launched an unwise assault against Elysium, although the Smoker's and Hunter's combined population could repel the assault, the number of casualties was dropped to zero on account of an Infected Army soldier that was on shore leave at the time.

The bastards did it again, thought Alice as she watched the Batarian's retreat with only three ships intact, it had been stupid to attack Mindoir, but to attack an old colony such as this with air defences and the like, and she wondered how they developed space flight in the first place.

She then looked around the place, she saw a few wounded and remember she was the medic; she quickly sprang to action and went from person to person, her Hunter genes coming in handy.

She was patching up the arm of a Tank that was on holiday at the time and was feeling the fatigue from repeated jumping, she rummaged in her medical bag until she found her pack of Infec-Up, and she took one syringe out and injected it into her arm, immediately she felt a refreshing sensation throughout her body, she then energetically jumped up to the next balcony, forty metres away.

**Codex: Infec-Up is a result of twenty years of research of bio-chemistry and the Green Flu cross-referenced, with complicated series of ingredients and twisted into a concentrated Green Flu sample, it allows for the virus to mutate further for a temporary time, this allows them to become deadlier in different depending on which Infected they are, overusing the drug can lead to deterioration of Sentience, and back to the mental state of the Infected, scientists have worked out that this can only happen if it is used every day for a year however, so there has been no incidents thus far.**

She was tending to a Jockey couple when she looked to the right and her eyes widened slightly.

Their she was standing there, with her rifle still lying beside her as she chewed on a piece of candy, she was a Witch after all so it made sense, her long silver hair cascaded down her shoulders, she was looking out from the balcony, as she slowly ate away at her chocolate bar.

Sally knew better than to get star struck, but it was still something to see the actual hero that led them all to battle up so close, her inspiring speech had let them all charge forward and drove the invaders away with their tails between their legs.

After staring at her back for half a minute, she quickly shook head and jumped away, there was still people to get back on their feet of course, but she still thanked the hero for what she had done to help.

She was suddenly aware to the fact that she couldn't remember her name, after wracking her brains she then remembered.

"Shepard…"

2188: Due to the hit and run attacks from the Batarian's, it has been mandatory to have ships orbiting the planets inhabited by S.I., after a few crippling losses to the Batarian's fleets, they backed off from frequent raids on S.I. planets.

2189: The Quarian space station built and given to the Quarian's free as a sign of trust, the station was name Dinitium Novum, Latin for New Beginnings, in return, several Quarian's worked for the G.R. as expert engineers to pay back for giving them a home, this cemented the alliance between the two races.

2190: A mission to the planet Akuze had unearthed a species called Thresher Maws, but strangely enough, the large subterranean creatures did not try to harm the ground party when they landed, investigation into the matter showed that the predators could sense whenever something to eat would be harmful to its body, this was most likely the Green Flu within the team's bodies, further investigation of Thresher Maws was underway.

2191: The research facility on Mars had an accident of an unusual nature; all scientists had mysteriously disappeared without a trace, as well as trained bodyguards, there were only two living subjects that were left, due to the research being top secret, no information was given about the two.

2192: A special program known as Black-L division within the Infected Army had been established, little is known about what happens to the ones chosen for the process, but it is known whenever Black-L were to be sent somewhere, they would come back with no casualties, and no enemy survivors.

2193: After years of investigation, the central hub of the Batarian's slaving operations had been tracked to the Batarian moon Torfan, to retrieve the hostages it had been debated to send Black-L division, but instead the Infected Army sent an E7, as in Elite 7, team to secure the planet, along with several bands of Krogan and the Lion of Elysium…

"Okay ladies, ETA to Torfan is in ten minutes, suit up or you will stay behind" the speakers then shut off and the soldiers began setting up their gear, in the corner, was one who had already put on her armour an hour ago.

Her hair had the usual silver that Witch's had, but with several stripes of black lined on it, her gold eyes held a twinge of green if looked close enough, as for any other Witch or part-Witch, her armour had several openings that cooled down her warm body, she was currently quadruple checking her ammunition as she looked through her gear.

She stood tall at five foot eight; she had looks that were stunning for even for a full blooded Witch, even now the rest of the soldiers glanced at the beauty at the end of the room.

"ETA in three minutes, all teams now report to the cargo bay"

The soldiers now marched to the cargo bay, their stood their superior officer, Major Kyle.

"Alright, today we are to make history" the Hunter declared as he walked in front of them, they all stood to attention,

"Right now we are to appear on Torfan, the place were those snakes carried men, women, _children_, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and anyone they could get their hands on, but now today, we are going to march up to their door and show them, that we are not going to be pushed around anymore!"

As he spoke to the soldiers, the Witch slowly took out a necklace from under her armour, opening up the locket, she looked at the picture of two Witch's, an adult and a child, together and smiling, she then gripped it tightly, but carefully as to not break it.

"…so if anyone wants to say they can't do this, then wait behind and make the rest of us coffee, as well as for everyone that comes back, and we _will Bring. Them. Back!"_

There was a general cheer among everyone, the Major nodded at the several pairs of determined eyes and he put his hand do his comm.

"Are you ready Johnson?"

"_Coming up to Torfan now Major, give them hell"_

"Will do"

He then swung to the opening door, as it showed the red moon Torfan; several bases were shown in view, and as they did, the Witch soldier tucked the locket back in her armour and swung her weapon to a ready position.

_Mother… I'm coming_

And so, the Lion of Elysium, Grace Shepard, stepped forward to face her next challenge.

**A/N: So here we are, Torfan was the only thing in Shepard's history I intended to put into depth, because of all the things that happen here.**

**And now time for a decision.**

**-VERY IMPORTANT, READ-**

**It should be noted that this will be the last time I ask for the second part of the Hybrid for Shepard, Hunter and Smoker have already been asked for, it's between those two or any others you suggest, also, Shepard's mother, should she die, be crippled, or still be healthfully alive in the next chapter, I can do all three comfortable enough.**

**Next time, Torfan cover-up, and the guilt of the Infected.**


	8. Chapter 6: Hero Turned Butcher

**A/N: Time for the next mission, BAM!**

**Chapter 6: Hero Turned Butcher**

It was a messily constructed outpost, numerous buildings were jutting next to each other, some were connected by panels and wires, the whole place outside the outpost was like Mars before it was inhabited by the Jockeys, red and dusty, Grace had seen the pictures herself.

And just as it was with Mars back then, it was empty.

This unnerved most of the soldiers as they scanned the area, they expected more of gunfire and battle when toughing down, it was strange that it was so calm yet it was as tense as if they had been under fire, as they entered the buildings, they used the larger Tank hybrids to cover the front, Shepard was with them due to her lethal close combat skills.

The place was still quiet as they went into the lower levels, they surveyed the corners and every room, and the extra careful ones who looked and checked in every possible direction were Infec-Turned.

**Codex: Infec-Turned refers to the term of ones who used to be humans in their life's before being infected, the term for being born as an Infected in Infec-Born, whenever they were birthed from artificial wombs or not, there are several differences between these two groups, for instance the Turned are usually scared of dark or enclosed spaces due to being survivors during the Infection, and the Born are completely comfortable with their bodies and can do impossible feats because they are aware of their limits due to having them all their life's.**

Grace quickly checked every corner that even the Turned never thought to look, she even triple checked to make sure.

She was experienced when it came to these type of missions, if you ever made the mistake of doing something wrong, it could mean the end of your life, and that is it also possible your teammates life's as well, for every mistake, ten could die, so that motivated her enough to be prepared enough to the point of being paranoid.

They were given a heads up before that the Batarian's had probably dug deep into the moon, after all it had been a part the slave business for over a decade, the place had to have over five hundred prisoners, it is only logical they had vast underground complexes where scattered through the crusts of the moon.

They were at floor six when Shepard's as well as the rest of her team's comms started issuing static.

"_Squad Alpha, have you found anything on your end?" _issued Major Kyle's voice from her ear.

Shepard used her Eye Interface and activated her comm.

"Not yet sir, we have negative contacts, from either Batarian's or our own"

"_Keep me posted on any suspicious activity; I have a bad feeling about this Lieutenant. I have learned to listen to my gut when that happens."_

"Understood"

After several more minutes with no reported activity, Squad Gamma had found something.

"_Report to all squads, we found blood here, a lot of blood, its dry now but when we tested it we found something strange, it isn't S.I. blood, it's Batarian"_

Grace raised an eyebrow, was it possible that the Batarian's enslaved their own race, she had doubts that anyone would really go out of their way to save them if that was the case.

"_Acknowledged Gamma, keep your eyes sharp everybody" _Kyle said over the line.

Finally that were at B-6, Shepard spied a Batarian standing in the hallway, and she raised her arm to halt her team behind her and slowly made her way up to him. She took off her glove quietly and raised it above the Batarian's head, with one quick slice; he fell to the floor, beheaded.

"This is Squad Alpha, we found a Batarian slaver, he is dispatched, remain on guard, more may be on the way."

As she and her team walked past the corpse, Wilco looked at the head,

"Were those guys always that ugly? This one's face is messed up"

Paul didn't give it a glance as he walked ahead of the Smoker, "We can compare your tastes of boyfriends later, we have a mission to do right now"

Wilco grunted and followed the sarcastic Hunter.

When checking a room, they found a body of a Jockey; his body was covered in blood which made hard to discern the marks that was the reason for his death.

Checking his life signs, Shepard shook her head with a sigh, she activated her comm, "Squad Alpha here, we found one of our own, he's dead"

A loud sigh could be heard from Kyle, _"Any signs on how he possibly died?"_

Shepard turned the body over and her eyes opened wide in shock,

"I have found several bites and flesh is ripped off the skin, it can't be an animal, the bite marks are too small and narrow"

Silence flooded the comms,

"_Attention all squads, be prepared for any S.I. with lost sentience, I repeat, be prepared for any S.I. with lost sentience"_

"_Shepard, I need you and your team to scout the next level, make sure to stick close, and don't take your eyes off each other"_

Shepard nodded at the statement and moved towards the stairs, if S.I. had lost sentience, it would be an act of war against the Batarian's, they had it coming for a long time, and the G.R. had held their tongues, but if even a small amount of S.I. and turned back, it would be hell to pay.

She and her team were especially vigilant now, they had only heard stories of what it was like during the Infection, and the thought that any would kill and feed on them without thought, made them sick to the stomachs. It was not even an element in movies, only in accurate history documentaries does it lay the thick truth on what happened.

They checked the walkways for any Hunters, long hallways for Smokers, every corner for Boomers; it had become even more tedious waiting for something to happen.

Then they found long cell blocks, Grace gritted her teeth in disgust at the conditions of sanitation, it wasn't fit for a pig.

They then came across a few more bodies, different squads from the upper levels also reported in finding some, they were both S.I. and Batarian's, but strangely enough the only S.I. that could cause all of the same similar injuries were the Hunters, because of the distinguishing marks that other Infected could leave.

They then opened a door into a large room, when they had flashed torches into the dark room they saw a figure, humanoid in shape in the door at the other side of the room facing them.

It was a Batarian, Shepard was about to shoot him in the head when she realised something.

Why wasn't he showing any reaction?

She looked closer at him and suddenly he looked up at them, and Grace and her team immediately gasped.

His mouth was bloodied with skin falling off his jaw, with irregular growths spouting from his face; his eyes were dead and lifeless until they landed on them. His lips drew back in a growl, as he started running at them in a cruel, puppet like fashion.

He was infected with the Green Flu.

Shepard took a deep breath and let the bullets fly.

She made her squad promise not to tell Kyle yet; the occasion that another outbreak among another species could happen was not something to report, the outcome was withdrawal and destruction from orbit.

Besides, there couldn't have been that many Batarian's; it was a base that was probably run by little staff, so it was likely that some were killed off by more powerful S.I.

It had now been a total of one hour since they landed, nothing more than corpses were found down to B-8, and the walking ones were found and dealt with quickly by Shepard and her team as they scouted ahead.

But Kyle had been becoming suspicious, the halls echoed the sound of gunfire several times and they had not found a single Batarian or S.I. other than Alpha Squad.

B-9 was when everything went to hell.

Shepard had called in the other squads before checking one door, even the most careful had made mistakes in the past, but this mistake opened the holding cell 789.

This was where many different Batarian slaves had been shoved together with an infected slaver; Squad Charlie was attacked instantly as the doors opened. They were able to get a short message to Major Kyle before they were cut off.

"_FUCK-*bzzz*Infected! Infected are here!*bzzz*they are Batarian's! They were Infected!*bzzz*Shit! He's biting my arm! JENNY!*bzzzzzzzzzzz-_

Major Kyle wore an expression of horror; he quickly relayed his message to all squads,

"Pull out now! Infected Batarian's are in this base, we need to retreat now!" he hardly thought about how they didn't see any so far, he was determined to get out here before the situation could escalate.

Shepard wore a similar expression of horror when announcement was made, there was one more floor in the base to search, and she hadn't found her mother yet.

She was torn as the stairs to the next floor down were in sight, she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked at Marie, the Spitter/Hunter hybrid also known as Spitting Cobra's.

"We'll still follow you Shepard, we only have a floor to go, and we'll find your mother" she smiled to assure her; Shepard felt her spirits lifted by the support of her team.

They moved forward quickly, spurred on by the possible threat of them being overwhelmed by the Batarian's, to the last floor, B-10.

It was more crowded than the last floors, Batarian Infected were banging on doors with relentless vigour, they turned immediately towards Shepard and her squad when they came in, as they ran towards them the first few were dropped by the assaulting gunfire.

Major Kyle got everyone he could out except Charlie Squad, and was about to call in Johnson to pick them up when he noticed something.

"Where is Squad Alpha?" he asked all the soldiers, they searched around and confirmed that Shepard and her team were nowhere to be found,

Kyle activated his comm, "Shepard can you hear me?"

The silence stretched on for four seconds before,

"_Yes sir, I hear you"_

He breathed a sigh of relief before he frowned, "Shepard, you need to get out now, the possibility of inter-species infection is too great to continue this mission"

"_But sir, the Infected are mainly converged on B-10, that should mean that there are survivors here, either that or they would be more spaced out throughout the base"_

"Shepard, we need to call this off, let Black-L take care-

"_Sorry sir, but I fucking know that Black-L is a clean-up squad, no survivors are allowed to see them work, I'm not going until I find everyone"_

Kyle grew angry, "Why is it that we never found any Infected in the first place, Shepard, were you keeping this fact a secret?"

More silence,

"…_I am sorry sir, but I need to do this, Shepard out"_

"Wait, don't you-DAMMIT!" Kyle shouted as the channel was cut out,

He switched to the connection with the ship "I need evac on stand-by, as well as reinforcements, we have a rouge team down there" he then faced the soldiers,

"Alpha Squad is back at B-10, we all need to get down there and bring them out, survivors is also a priority again, so keep sharp and pray to god there isn't any new mutations"

The Infec-Born suppressed a shudder at that, it was enough when the human body had made so many drastic changes during the Infection, and they didn't want to know what an _alien _special Infected could do…

Shepard had proceeded through the corridors taking out all Batarian's that she saw running up to them, it was safe to assume they were all Infected in the corridors.

They had not had much luck finding survivors at first, but their spirits are lifted when they found several Jockey's hiding in one room, they quickly sent them on their way to the surface and continued searching around.

After more killing and rescuing they had only a few more rooms to go, as they moved forward to investigate them they heard a sound that resembled when flesh was ripped slowly apart.

They looked around the darkness at were the sound originated, it was silent as they took in the surroundings, they didn't see anything and backed off slightly from it slightly.

Shepard moved forward slightly as a slight groaning sound was heard; she gripped her gun tighter as she tried to make out any shapes down the hall.

"What the hell is that?"

Then a shout and Infected Batarian's rushed out in front of them, Shepard bit back a curse as she quickly beheaded one that got too close. She whipped out her pistol and fired numerous shots through the heads of the next four closest while she backed away quickly backing away from the tide of flesh.

The walking corpses stood no chance under the fire of the teams weapons, ten seconds later the assault was killed off and all four of the S.I. breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, that was a surprise" Paul said from behind them all, "and I thought it would be something-ARRGGGG!"

They spun around to be met with a horrifying sight,

Paul was two feet off the ground with his head crushed in the clawed hand of a hulking figure, it was female due to her clothes in shreds and showing her sex, as well as her over it wasn't a Batarian, she had silver hair and skin of an S.I., she stood to the height of eight feet, and would be beautiful if it hadn't been for her bloodied body and snaring face.

"AMAZON!"

**Codex: Amazon is the hybrid of Witch and Tank, with the name of the mythical strong women of the forest; it is the largest type of S.I. hybrid that can happen in normal circumstances, it is also known as the most violent and temperamental due to the rage that usually possesses both parties in any given situation, it is also a rumour that they would be the most likely to lose Sentience, combined with the strength of a Tank and the speed of a Witch, the male variation takes more after its father with bulking muscles and gorilla like stance, the Amazon is fast, efficient and when one is deployed in battle with average military training, chance of victory is increased by 42%.**

"PAUL!" shouted Wilco, he raised his shotgun and shot several bullets into the body of the Amazon, and so she grunted and dropped the body. She swung her arm and it caught Wilco on the side, he crashed into the wall and was stunned, unfortunately the Amazon ran to him and raised her arms in the air, bringing them down onto his head, snapping his neck.

Marie and Shepard shot more into the bulk of muscle as she turned towards them; the shots were piercing the skin and adding to the river of blood that was already dribbling down her body.

She took next to no notice of it however when she charged at the both of them with her shoulder in front of her like a Charger, she caught both of the soldiers on the side and caused them to stumble and hit the walls on either side, Marie got up first shooting more into the back of the Amazon.

She said monster swung around and slapped the weapon out of her arms, and before Marie could do anything, the Amazon picked her up with both arms into the air.

"MARIE!" Shepard shouted, she tried to distract the Amazon by digging her claws into its legs, but she was just kicked into the wall and it did nothing to distract it from its prey.

The creature turned its attention back to Marie, who was struggling weakly in its grip, and who immediately screamed when pressure on both sides of her was felt.

In a matter of seconds, a great fountain of blood fell to the floor as Marie was ripped in half between both of the bulging arms of the Infected, Shepard chocked up with tears at the sight of her companions bodies on the floor, a shadow fell over her and she looked up to see the source of all the carnage.

The Amazon raised her arms to break Shepard's spine in half, but then numerous gunshots exploded into her back, she turned around to the source and charged at it.

Shepard looked to see Kyle as well as the other teams firing their Z.G.E. weapons to try and put down the behemoth, it was no luck however and only helped slowing down her, and not by much.

Shepard was cut off from the screams of pain and death from the other squads as her eyes drifted towards her team.

_Shepard, from now on you will be assigned as the leader of Alpha squad, good luck._

Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at the crushed skull of Paul.

_We're mother-fucking Alpha, there's nothing we can't do!_

Broken body of Wilco.

_Her Ma'am, can I buy you a bear for yet another mission aced?_

Both half's of Marie.

_Don't worry Grace; we'll help you find your mother…_

Before everything went black, she felt herself leap forward at the back of the Amazon, and start tearing.

The mission was over, out of the 145 S.I. that were taken to the base, only 56 survived, Kyle knew this was a serious blow to any soldiers morality, he felt it himself, he did the math, out of 40 soldiers that went in there, only 14 came out, the numbers were playing in his head like a sick song that wouldn't go away, it seems that the Krogan at the other base of Torfan had also found Infected, they promised not to say anything, and said it was good to have a valid reason to kill something without anyone complaining.

The Batarian's had been easy enough to deal with when the element of surprise was no longer an issue, the Amazon however, had been the cause of twenty of those deaths, and the sad thing is that Wendy Ivystone, the Amazon, had only got past the point of no return a week before they got there, it was all a tragedy.

He looked across from his bed to Shepard, who was staring blankly towards the ceiling, she had a visit to her mother, who Kyle learned was also a slave in the base, she was in a coma and the doctors said it could last as long as a century even with the best care, he never saw Shepard so empty with life.

He himself told his superiors what happened, he knew that they had sent Black-L division to clean up everything, no evidence of the incident would be left.

But he also knew that Shepard was a hero despite breaking ranks, the survivors would have been considered lost because of the situation, if she hadn't broken rank they would have been lost, but no one but him and the other soldiers would know, because they had to keep the secret.

He lay back in his own bed as he shut his eyes, choosing to risk nightmares over having to hear the groans of pain from the others as well as Shepard's blank stare.

As he drifted off into unconsciousness, he caught the conversation of the doctors talking not far from him.

"It is a shame really; I hated dealing with these cases in any situation, ever since they originated back at the First Contact Incident"

"I know, I seen some of the aftermath myself, I am sad to say that it is only the third most violent one I have seen"

"It seems she had a close bond with her team, it is all very sad, hopefully she won't have to go through another Reckoning in her life…"

And then he fell asleep.

**Codex: Reckoning is the most violent time within a Witch's life, it is what intense amounts of pain and torture can never do, when one has lost their most closest friend and especially their lover and close family, in a violent incident that someone is to blame for, they lose all senses of reason, mercy and restraint, even the most kind hearted Witch would tear apart anything that caused their loved one to die. This condition causes slaughter and mutilation of anything that gets in the way, and is known as the closest that any S.I. has lost their sentience with the exception of the Amazon.**

2193: The assault against Torfan had resulted in much loses from the teams of S.I., Batarian's had inflicted heavy casualties, Major Kyle could not order the squad because he had been knocked unconscious, so Shepard, the Lion of Elysium took over, this led to the deaths of more soldiers and the death and mutilation of all the Batarian's on the base, whenever they were soldiers or not, giving Shepard another tile, the Butcher of Torfan, she had been given a suspension of service for a few years, another title given to her is the Dark Angel of Reckoning, due to her acts against Batarian's over the years.

It is not known in detail what happened at the base, as the soldiers were sworn to secrecy about the issue, but what is known is that the base was blown up and no trace that anything was there except a hole in the ground, debate is that Black-L was involved.


	9. Chapter 7: Shepard

**Okay then, here we are to…**

**Not the main story, that is right, a little more history squeezed in and I am adding a short piece that LEADS ON to the story, I know, I am a complete jackass.**

**So without further a due, here is the INTRO.**

**Hunter Codex: The Hunter strain of the virus in the Green Flu was influenced by high amounts of adrenaline that is usually pumped through the host during his uninfected life, the common victims were athletes and parkour runners, the strain would cause a feral state of an animal to happen, thus making the Hunter crouch on the ground on its fours and 'pouncing' on its prey, also with its increased aggression, it clawed at its face in rage whenever they got angered, resulting in bloody blotches in its eyes, the average height that a Hunter can jump is 14 metres from the ground, without momentum, after Alpha and Omega, Hunters had not changed in appearance much except their scars from self-inflicted wounds healing. They had become the speed, stamina and agility of Infected Humanity, only second to Nightmare Dragons in term of long distance races, but even when cured, each Hunter still possesses a feral quality to them, leading to a large amount following a certain religion called 'The Hunt', seeking dangerous creatures on other worlds to test their might against, they are generally quick to irritate and will bite when necessary, figuratively speaking of course.**

**Chapter 7: Shepard**

2194: After nearly half a century of conflict between Turian's and Infected Humanity (with exceptions of the Blue Suns and the occasional civilian), a joint project combining the Z.G.E. combat engines of the G.R. and the sleek craft designs of the Turian's was put into effect, to break the tension between the two species, planning took several Earth standard months, as contradicting designs of both species were suggested, and it was predicted to take three years for it to be completed, the estimations include the factor of the construction, testing and discussion on which race will have possession of the prototype.

Over the course of so many years of artificial wombs and cross species work, it was guaranteed that any couple within Infected Humanity could have a biological child with any gender and/or species they wish, unfortunately, only Asari had ever wished to have a child with S.I., as animosities was still thick among others, and even with the rare exceptions, they were kept anonymous, and out of sight.

2195: Zoey Kinski was drafted into several movies and film even from other alien species, one of her recent works, 'The Will of the Goddess', a popular show where the actors are mainly of the Asari species, this got her several more deals from even more movies and shows from many different races, even the Turian's didn't try and hire her for her artistic skills of directing.

Chad 'Coach' Coleman took over as Overseer of the Tank homeplanet from Cody Bradshaw, all citizens who run in the military there comment that he runs the place like a school gym.

Louis Alexander, CEO of the Boomers Tech Industry, has established several lines of business throughout his career, including on all the home planets of Infected Humanity, he goes to each major company to deal with problems if they should appear.

The memorial statues of Torfan and Elysium depicting Grace Shepard for her military record on each had been called into question with the conflicting natures of each, comment from Shepard herself was not available.

2196: William Overbeck re-enlisted into the Infection Squad Military; despite being offered his old post again he refused and took on the role of captain, and his own ship called Freedom Bird, he immediately took on several missions involving the G.R., and rumours are that he even takes undercover missions into the Terminus system, and is never caught.

Black-L division, after so many years of secrecy has finally realised one piece of information of the people who work there, they are specialised in stealth and infiltration missions, able to sabotage and assassinate easily and get out just as well, any members of the military group were not revealed, as they were said to need to be secret to avoid any publicity, the only known person publically who has relations with them is Dr Alex J. Mercer, a scientist in charge of some the technology that is unique in Black-L division.

Turian's have now moved from slightly hostile in public relations to old prejudices still being held, some of the more open minded of each species at least managed to accept each other, excluding Witch's, who still have a grudge against the them because of the First Contact Incident, even to this point, Turian's are regarded with cold stares from Witch's.

2197: The ship prototype under the construction of the Turian's-S.I. was finished, the debate on who to keep it was cut off with a deal made by Ambassador Roberts of the Jockey's saying that the prototype would belong to the G.R. while the Turian's received the first set of created the other ships in the future, the prototype was named the Normandy after the famous battle of human history, and commanded under David Anderson, an ex-scientist Jockey and right now a respected leader in the Infected Army for many years.

The first test run of the Normandy and its crew was set in a few months, many rumours were made that some of the crew would be Black-L members, or that Krogan and Quarian's would be part of it, wild speculation raged on for the issue, and people had to go to hospital on the account that the overuse of the Inter-Connect gave them serious headaches.

The stars slowly twinkled outside the window, to anyone else, they were stars, the same ones that looked the same if you went to the other side of the galaxy to look at them, but to Nihlus Kryik, it seemed so different now in G.R. space.

He tried not to think about how the last time a Spectre went here she nearly caused the war between Turian's and S.I. to begin, he just looked on with interest at the looming space station that was filling the view of the window of the Turian vessel.

Having become a Spectre a few years ago, he was sent on many missions, some were more dangerous in terms of inevitable danger than this one, but none of them compared to how nerve racking it was, becoming an negotiator was more politicians work than anything, but he know that the G.R. played politics in a very different way, it wasn't that they were better at it, it is that they can turn deals faster than one could blink and, as the metaphor goes, squeeze as much as they can out of the fruit given to them, not to mention the variety, both physically and mentally, that the S.I. possesses, you can't apply the same method twice to convince them.

Nihlus remember why he was here, due the prototype, named Normandy by the G.R. that was due to be tested within a few months, it was one small step between the Turian's and Infected Humanity finally giving up hostilities that have been raging since they met, of course the civilians have finally started warming up to them, he himself had looked past the old prejudices from over thirty years ago, but still, there is more than one wishes there to be.

The goal was to also find a Spectre within Infected Humanity, yes, even now the words in his head sounded impossible, the G.R. are not even in alliance to the council, yet the Citadel Council was considering having a member of them to become one of their agents.

At a logical standpoint he could see the benefit in the idea, after all, with the incredible abilities from only one individual and the unique ones added to the child depending on its parents, not to mention the technology from the G.R. given to them on the field, the possibilities were limitless.

But then again, the fact that he might be the one to apprentice this pioneer, was strange, and even the fact that he might fight alongside them, he couldn't really picture himself side-to-side with a Tank or a Smoker, suddenly Nihlus suppressed a chuckle at the thought of fighting with a Jockey, as an ally or an enemy, not that they were useless at combat, far from it, but it was just the picture of the thing.

"_Spectre Kryik" _the captain said over his Omni-Tool spoke, _"We have docked with the Council-G.R. political station, Captain Anderson and Ambassador Undine are waiting in the conference room"_

Nihlus raised his Omni-Tool in front of his mouth, "Right away, I will be there in ten minutes"

As he took the Datapad given to him to choose a valid candidate among the military in the G.R., and made his way out of his room.

He walked through the door as it slid open by itself, in front of him sat to figures around a round table,

The first was sitting normally in his seat, with a hood over his face as he looked down at the glowing text of the Omni-tool on his arm; he gave a glance to acknowledge him, and waved his arm vaguely to the remaining seat across himself, the man wore normal civilian clothing that were dark and slightly faded, he had a sour look on his face judging from the upturned lip that was the only visible feature from the shadow of his hood, from this he knew it was Ambassador Undine in charge of Council-G.R. relations, Hunter and a classic shouting politician.

The other was actually standing up in his seat yet wasn't taller than his companion next to him, since he had no sign of discomfort it showed he was used to it, he had numerous badges and wore a formal military clothes of the Infection Army, red colour scheme with trimmings of different shades of green at places, the man nodded in a professional manner to him as he wrung his long gangly arms of any stiffness, this was Captain Anderson, Jockey at old hero in the Infection Army.

Nihlus stood for a moment before walking forward to sit at the seat in front of them, caught in the crossfire of their stares.

"So" said Undine as he now looked up from his files, "as we know, the Turian Hierocracy and the G.R. had been working together to make a prototype ship that is able to turn invisible to the radar of others within the vicinity, as well as adding the best of designs and tech from both sides, and now we have completed it, it is time to decided its future"

He pressed on record from his Datapad and seemed to grab it out of the device, he then seemed to throw it to the centre of the table, which seemed to explode in light as it showed a large planet floating above the table, above the large holographic picture, a title read 'Eden Prime' in large orange letters.

"We have recently dug up a Prothean beacon" he continues, "As we know, the Prothean's were the most powerful species in the galaxy at the time"

Anderson then takes over, "As we already have an abundance of technology, we have decided to give the Beacon the Citadel Council, to compensate for the problems between both of us"

"Indeed" the Turian Spectre agrees, "So, I expect this will have the typical cover story, shake-down run?"

Anderson nods, "Of course, even if Eden Prime is a fortress with the weapons of the G.R. guarding it, not to mention behind a thick territory of G.R. space between the planet and the Terminus system, there might still be some people who would be greedy enough to try and take it, put it up for ransom most likely"

**Codex: The Terminus systems had been an danger to the G.R. on terms of exploration and colonisation, so, the Infected Army seized a large piece of space in the Terminus system between itself and colonies, even if a few ships were to get by and steal some people for slavery, very few get back, and none get the chance to sell their catch, it was known as the Terminus Purge, were over thousands of pirates and slavers were arrested, killed or had retreated from the G.R. during their occupation of their planets.**

Kryik thanked the sprits for people like these, anyone else and they would have kept the Beacon under lock and key, it was refreshing to have people that didn't look out for their own gain from time to time.

"This has all been sorted out however," Undine cuts in, as he prepares several more papers, "the Beacon is only a small start, and won't cut the accusations and hateful stares that a majority of our species gives each other"

The two others nodded solemnly at this,

"And the next step is a Spectre, correct?" asked Anderson, he looked a little saddened as he said it,

Undine answered, "Yes, it was not well thought out the first time Infected Humanity tried to apply for the Spectres, as of course you know Anderson" he then gave a grimace, "and the reason why it didn't work out that time was because of all these hostility's, we need to have the best candidate we can to try this time" he looked at Nihlus, "I suppose since it is you governments police force, that you should go first"

Nihlus nodded as he then took out the first profile from his large collection in his Datapad, "Well, what about this one, Gregory Everdeen, Smoker, he is a rising star in the Infected Humanity; every mission he took on was successful"

Anderson shook his head, "I had heard of him, the boy is good with a weapon that much is for sure, but he is a follower, he isn't able to make the big decisions as an individual, we need a leader to represent Infected Humanity"

Undine looked a little angry at the suggestion as well; no doubt the Citadel was banking on that, have someone that doesn't think for themselves as an agent, be a lot easier to order them around.

Nihlus was undeterred as he put aside the file recommended by the Turian Councillor, and to the next.

_An hour of debate later_

"What about Harrison?" asked Undine as he went through the another possible soldier, "He was a Commander involved in the Terminus Purge, he is a hybrid of Tank and Witch, quite resilient and knows the field all too well"

Anderson had a thoughtful expression, "No, you haven't heard of his recent accident, both of his legs were torn off in a training accident involving an experimental grenade, he is retired now"

Nihlus was stunned that they went through a list of people that at times had received gruesome injuries and/or dismemberment that would make a Krogan flinch, but it was like discussing the weather to them, Infected Humanity it seems has shown yet again the results of surviving the Green Flu.

"That is it for our candidates" said Anderson as he placed the exhausted Datapad in front of him, "None of them seem to be good enough for the post"

"Do you have anyone else that the Council wanted under them Spectre Kryik" said Undine to the Turian with a trace of a sneer.

The mentioned alien looked at the main tab of info of the possible candidates, there was only one left, it was a suggestion from all the Councillors and only meant to be suggested last of them all.

He sighed, "What about Grace Shepard?"

The other two's head snapped to him from the name, both with shock on their features, Undine was the first to recover.

"Impossible, she was suspended from the Army for what she did at Torfan; many people won't like the idea of her representing the G.R."

"But she is still an excellent soldier when she was the top of her career before the incident" Nihlus quickly said, the Council had explicitly said that if Shepard was the last choice, fight for all its worth.

"She was born in the colonies at least," Anderson put in with a thoughtful expression, "she knows what loss is and of course her exploits in protecting Elysium, and even if most of the ground team died, she was able to take control of the situation before everyone had died"

Nihlus felt relief that it all was going in the right direction, Shepard was famous even outside of the G.R., with her ability's she could possibly be the best Spectre in Council history.

"I suppose…" said Undine as his face became a grudging acceptance, "she is also a Hybrid, Hunter-Witch, agility and rage in one package, and it has been a while since Torfan, this could be the time to bring her back into service"

After looking through the pros and few cons of the decision was made, yet it couldn't go through without one more objection from the Ambassador.

"But are we sure she is the one we want representing Infected Humanity?"

Anderson looked at the Witch-Hunter's bio, and said in a convicted tone, "The way I see it, she is the only one who CAN represent us"

And so the meeting concluded, with arrangements to be made in the future regarding the possible S.I. Spectre.

_Elysium, 143 Wellingway Street, Level 8, Tower 3._

**RING RING RING RIN-**

Grace raises her hand and slams it down at where her alarm clock was, she was rewarded with a crack and realised that the alarm was starting to wear down already, despite it being designed to withstand pressure such as this.

**RING RING RING**

She frowned, the alarm was off, yet the ringing sound was still issuing, it took her a moment to realise that that it was in fact a different sound from her clock, it was her front door, with a persistent person in front of it.

**RING RING RING**

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" she muttered as she dragged herself out of bed, while she did, she passed a row of pictures on a chest of drawers with a few pictures on top of it, with the same two Witch's, one young and one older, smiling and sitting next to each other, usually hugging each other.

The only one that was different was a picture of the older Witch, who had her eyes closed, and lying in a hospital bed, there was not a trace of dust on the frames, showing they were well taken care of.

Shepard grumbled as she typed in the key combination which allowed the metal door to slide open, showing a male Charger in a set of military clothing.

"Finally! I have been waiting for fifteen min-URG!" the Charger blushed a deep red as he looked at Shepard and immediately turned his head to look at the suddenly interesting wall.

Grace didn't need to look to know she was naked, because of a Witch's high body temperature, only Witch's hybrids at times wear clothing while sleeping, but she was more of the warm blooded type, so she chose the first option.

At times like this, someone would normally get embarrassed, but Shepard had a Witch upbringing, for someone to be embarrassed of a Witch's body was actually a compliment, besides, she wasn't into Chargers.

"I-uh I was *cough* senthertotellyouthatyouarebeingofferedaplaceontheN ormandy" he said it so quickly Grace didn't catch it,

"Excuse me?" she asked as I leaned against the metal door of her apartment.

He sucked in a few breaths before saying slower, "You are being offered the rank of Commander aboard the newest prototype ship called the Normandy" he said.

Her eyes widened slightly, "What?"

"Can you put on clothes before I repeat it?" he asked in an embarrassed squeak, completely unbecoming for his large figure,

"Just say it" Grace impatiently said, her eyes in a frown,

"Here" He said and rummaged into his pocket and stretched out his hand awkwardly behind him, inside his large hand was a this metallic body of a Datapad, as soon as she took it, the Charger turned around and proceeded with a quick pace to leave, not taking a glance behind him.

Shepard shook her head before going back into her apartment, while looking at the device in her hand, sifting through her new job description.

"Back in the Nightmare Dragon saddle again…" she muttered, she then opened up her Omni-tool on her wrist bracelet and got tickets on the next transport leaving for the Citadel.

"I wonder how people will react when I get aboard?" she thought, "Will I be a Lion, or just a Butcher"

**A/N: I love this story, I really do, and I hope that this will be a shared opinion among everyone.**

**So off we go to Eden Prime, how will the Reapers efforts to kill and all effect the ones who already died? Stay tuned…**


	10. Chapter 8: Butcher or Lion?

**A/N: I hate it when I put off things, Massively Slaughtered hasn't been hitting me much lately so I am writing up this, the next chapter of MSD, hope you enjoy... BECAUSE IT IS MORE INTRODUCTION! MWAHAHAHAHA!**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Butcher or Lion?**

* * *

**Boomer Codex: The Boomer strain of the virus takes its influence from high cholesterol and fat that would circle the body before infection, they are judged to be the weakest because of its changes, the body swells to a bulging state due to it producing 300% more bilge and other substances than normal, the skin is expanded to the point of breaking, and at points it does, including around the face, because of the constant creation of these substances, they periodically vomit upon the ground for a few hours of relief before they swell larger again, a compound within the vomit produce pheromones that attract Common and Special Infected alike, as well as being able to explode when put under enough pressure, resulting in a 'splash' effect covering any survivors in range, making them effective 'suicide' creatures after the infection was cured, the Boomer population was regarded as fragile and so put far away from the front lines, now a days, the Boomers bomb like bodies have been put through a special process given at hospitals to 'flush' the body of all the chemicals within their stomach, no lasting cure has been found however as the bodies reproduce after a while, they have been known to expand far into the research of easy personal transport because of their situation, and worked with Screamers to gather any Common Infected for research into the Common Cure program, or Commune Cura as Latin is a common language now.**

The mission had started a day ago, if it could be called a mission, people didn't honestly know how to answer that, with a Spectre onboard, newest prototype of advanced ship, and Captain Anderson, known as one of the greatest Infection Army assets that the G.R. have ever had was commanding it, you would think there would be.

But it was all just a shakedown run.

Yes, it sounds like a punchline to a bad joke, and anyone would look at this situation and would saw it was a load of Creeper crap (Jockey/Hunter hybrid), but when you work with the G.R., you learn to accept a few things and not ask questions.

But then again, not asking questions probably led to the Green Flu...

But, it also payed to just follow orders as well.

Anyway, the Normandy was given the 'mission' to get to the planet, it would have taken the fastest ship from the Turians at least five days to get there due to traveling through the Mass Relays, but for Infected Humanity's cooperation with the Turian's, they managed to cut it down to only three days, because of being able to travel a the speed of light anywhere it wishes, if it hadn't been for the fact that the Turian Hierarchy were going to get other Normandy class vessels in the future, it would have been the most advanced ship in any fleet from any species.

Asari are a very close tie, but that is still up for debate, and the S.I. originally developed their own own engines and very loosely around Element Zero.

The ship took on some characteristics from the Turians, the sleek and thin design along with special additions to the engines among other parts to the ship, Infected Humanity had put forth many of its own technology, as more ships were to be produced for the Turians, the issue would be discussed at a later date or whenever the G.R. decide to let them know the inner workings of the technology in the engines.

The crew itself were just as diverse as the ship, many S.I. roamed the hall completing several tasks to maintain the well-being of the ship, the different species were from A height to C height in categories, with much variety in species including Hunters, Smokers, the occasional Witch, a couple dozen Jockeys and several different hybrids.

**Codex: A through to E classification in height was made before Infected Humanity even reached space, due to different sizes among the varieties of S.I., the system was made and placed into architecture so that buildings were made to accommodate the builds of creatures such as Tanks or Naitomeadoragon, the rough sizes were A-Jockeys and similar builds, B-Human sized Infected, C-Chargers and similar builds, D-Tanks, younger Naitomeadoragon and similar builds, and last of all E-Full sized Naitomeadoragon and similar builds, usually areas are marked with signs signifying whenever it is okay for B through E can be allowed.**

Apart from the S.I., two Spectres were aboard as well, one was Nihlus Kryik, a strong mind and body, he had risen up the ranks easily when he had trained under several professionals, before becoming a Spectre, he had a look of profession on him, ignoring any unease of the situation, the other was called Solana Vakarian, a 'rookie' Spectre that was learning the ropes from Nihlus, she didn't try to look as stoic as her mentor, but more relaxed, but if you looked at her at the right time, she would give a crewmember a look of disdain behind their backs.

They were currently overseeing the 'shakedown run' of the Normandy, currently overseeing the work of one Jockey helmsman, as he used his long arms to reach all of the controls easily, all the while glancing back at the two Turian Spectres every now and then with apprehension.

Not that he was scared that they would attack the crew of course, that would be suicidal, it was just that he was within their range.

Sitting next to him was a humanoid type S.I., he had a human that took on a greenish tint with his veins showing out his skin with a distinctive black, his most prominent

feature however, was his face, which had a strong underbite, with several jutting teeth at least a few inches long, curling over his lip, both the bottom and lower one sported a charcoal black as if they were burned, a small mop of black hair was perched on his head, and his eyes sat between both features normally enough, thus was a hybrid known as a Spitfire.

**Codex: Spitfire's are the hybrid that is formed between a Flamer and a Landshark, because of the flammable liquids that are produced from the Flamer side of the hybrid, they can coat their projectile teeth in the compound so that they are more lethal, but unfortunately, most Spitfire's pay the price, with the constant burns that is sustained around the mouth and burning the gums of the rapidly growing teeth, all of them suffer from severe headaches due to staining of the sensitive nerves.**

Meanwhile, down one floor of the Normandy was the crews quarters, a specific one stands out from the rest, as most of the others are shared, this one was a private room for one Grace Shepard to rest in.

Grace was currently suiting up her armour, yes, while her superiors had dictated that is was only to test the capabilities of the Normandy, she had not gotten so far by not preparing for what was implied false, no one knew that Batarians would attack Elysium, and she was caught unaware because of that, so after gaining inspiration from Miyamoto Musashi, to never let your guard down and always be cautious, of course not so drastic as to never take a bath or comb her hair.

She was a fighter, but still a lady after all.

She looked out of the window, the stars zipping past as the ship was travelling through 'slip-space' as some people call it, the technical name was too complex to bring up in normal conversation, she took a deep breath before getting off her bed to stand.

The door of her quarters opened and she stepped out, she had rarely ventured out into the view of the other crewmembers, she wasn't what one would call eager to make friends, she ignored a few stares in her direction as she turned her body towards the stairs that led to the command bridge.

"Was that her?" asked a Hunter-Charger hybrid to his co-worker a Jockey.

The aforementioned S.I. nodded slightly, "Yep, so what are you on the Shepard debate?"

"Lion fully, I saw her on Elysium, whatever she did on Torfan was well deserved"

"I don't know..." said his friend thoughtfully, "I saw the reports on it, however vague they may be, the brutality was clear enough, I think Butcher"

Grace ignored this, her Hunter genes may not have shown much physically wise, but her hood that covered her eyes showed so, as the lights of the ship were a strain to her eyes slightly, and as she walked towards the cockpit with a steady grace, her weapons glinting on her back, several more Lion or Butcher questions were asked from the more further away crewmembers, she ignored them as well.

When she had reached the front of the room, she stood beside the Spectres without any hesitation, Solana glanced at her, narrowing her eyes a little before looking forward again.

At the same time, Joker was currently running his hands along the piano of buttons and levers as the ship shuddered slightly, the space that was currently zooming by the window now returned to a normal view of the stars as it came out of its lightspeed journey.

"Thrusters... check, navigation... check," Joker said internal emissions sink engaged, all major and minor systems online, as well as the Wormhole Ring running under 6000 units, drift... just under 1500 K"

"1500 is good, your captain will be pleased" said Nihlus from behind him in his flanging voice that was common for most Turians, he then left his spot behind the helmsman's chair and exited the cockpit.

"Hn" said Solana, before following him close behind,

About ten seconds after they left, the Jockey turned his head to see if they were out of range, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damn, did you not even feel the Tank in the room there?" he asked his Spitfire co-pilot.

"I just ignored the tension you were making Joker" he replied back, the now named Joker huffed in response,

"I hate those guys"

"Nihlus gave you a compliment... so you hate him?" with an eyebrow raised at the Jockey pilot,

"You remember to zip your jumpsuit up on the way out of the bathroom Alenko? Thats good" exasperated Joker, "I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and bit a target the size of an atom, that is nearly impossible, yet I did it"

Alenko rolled his eyes, "I just know you make that line sound more incredible each time you tell it"

"Besides, Spectres are trouble" Joker said, ignoring the jab, "Having them on board might as well be a Amazon, you don't know when they will snap, worst of all, their both Turian"

Instead of disagreeing, Alenko inclined his head in slight agreement, "Well, that is a complication I have to admit, but the Turians did joint this whole project with us, they have a right to look over what was half made by them"

"More like a quarter" Joker mumbled, "And that is the 'official' story, and only an idiot would believe the official story"

"Perhaps you should cut on the coffee Moreau" Grace spoke, all tho the phrase could had been interpreted as being an attempt at humour, it was rather cold and with not much life, the other two S.I. jumped in their seats as they just noticed their superior standing behind them.

Thank god they weren't the type to complain about their bosses, that would have turned out awkward.

"Well, um, Commander" Joker struggled with his surprise, "I'm just saying you know, I mean the last time a Spectre was here..."

"They blew up a secret facility, yes, I know" Grace cut in, she wasn't one for obvious facts.

"Well, yeah" Joker fit his name well for a reason, even in front of anyone from a higher rank, but trying to lighten the mood with Shepard around was like flirting with a Witch at her lovers funeral, or anytime afterwards for that matter, "You know, it just pays to have feelings like this, you know, what are we doing out here is the question"

"Point, yet moot" answered shortly the Hunter-Witch hybrid, "We have orders here, so we'll see them through, understood?"

Joker nodded his head nervously, not that he was particularly scared of her, Jockey nature naturally was what made him slightly cautious, also the fact that he had learned Jokers console made a chiming sound, his hand touched the flashing icon on instinct, eager to get away from the awkward conversation.

"_Joker"_ A commanding voice spoke up from the intercom, _"Status report"_

"Just cleared slip-space captain" Joker replied with a slight professional tone, "Stealth systems are working fine, and no troubles with the Z.G.E. generator, it is working at 120% efficiency from the previous most advanced generator I may add, everything is solid"

"_Good, find the Inter-Connect signal and patch us through, I need the G.R. to to get the mission reports before we reach Eden Prime" _

"Got it sir, by the way, brace yourself, Nihlus and the scary girl is coming your way" warned Joker, trying humour again,

"_They're already here Joker" _he answered back in a tired voice.

Joker shook his head at the knowledge that the so called scary girl was going to be glaring holes at the back of his head later on.

_"Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing"_

The link clicked out and Joker turned his head slightly to the side.

"You get that Commander?"

He waited a few seconds, before turning his head completely to look at the spot where his superior officer was, but all that stood there was empty space.

Slumping as much as he could in his chair, given his large spine, and breathed a sigh.

"That Shepard, sometimes I feel as if she is staring into my soul or something"

"What, you are into that Butcher Lion debate as well?" asked Alenko, as he glanced at the pilot.

"No, whole thing is stupid anyway, just her general feel you know, I had felt chills during my survivor years less creepy than that"

Alenko fully turned to him, "You Infec-Turned?"

"Don't be so surprised, not all of us are scared of our own shadows you know"

"Well, okay, but that can't be her fault, after what she went through, you have to give her some sympathy"

"I guess..."

Three awkward situations in one day was to be avoided for a reason.

After a few seconds Joker attempts another line of conversation,

"Is it just me or does the Captain always sound angry?"

"Only when he's talking to you Joker"

* * *

**Grace POV**

* * *

I walked past the crew, not paying them any mind as I walked directly to the comm room, also ignoring the conversation of one of the ground crew she would be with as she past him, some hybrid of a kind.

I opened the door of the comm room, looking forward to see one of the Turian Spectres at the controls, looking at some data of Eden Prime from what the pictures depicted, from her shorter stature, I could tell that it was the female one, Vakarian.

Her armours colour scene mostly took blue and a darkish sliver into account, it fit snug around her figure and had a lot of heavy armour along the chest and neck, and lining down the outside of her legs in a hexagon pattern, finished with a neat black lining around the details.

Impressive figure, but I didn't like Turians, no Witch really did actually.

As I walked to the centre of the room, Solana turned her body to look at my approach, and it wasn't a surprise when she glared at me, like all military from the Turians, there was bound to even be caution around the open minded ones.

"Commander Shepard" she acknowledged blandly, "You got here first then, I was hoping we could talk"

'You don't look like it' I thought, it was obvious she had issues with S.I., but I chose to hold the comments I could have said and decided to respond.

"Will Captain Anderson and Kryik be here shortly?" I ask, slightly annoyed Spectre glare in return.

"They will be here" she says, "Now about this planet, Eden Prime, right? I had heard it was quite beautiful, a paradise almost"

Small talk, not exactly my forte.

"It was also has wide open spaces and the larger predators that inhabited it were no problem for it to become the Tank homeworld, and the most safe and secure of all of them in G.R. space"

"Hn" she responded to my practical outlook, "Yes, incredibly safe, Eden Prime has become a symbol for your people, hasn't it?"

"A world like our own, only untouched by the Green Flu, yes"

She paused a little before continuing, "Also the fact that it is one of the central hubs of the G.R., and an example of one of your first colonisation and protection of a colony in space"

She then turns her attention back at the image of said planet,

"but how safe is it really?"

I actually looked at her this time, albert briefly.

"Is that a threat Vakarian?"

She turned to me, "The Universe it a really dangerous place Shepard, and S.I. may have held their own for now, but you are still newcomers, is the G.R. truly ready for this?"

She held a near smug quality in her voice as she stood in front of me, before I could answer however, Kryik called from behind me.

"Thats enough Solana" he said in a flanging voice, "I left you here because I thought you would play nice"

Vakarian stiffened slightly, before taking a step back and standing to attention, I looked back myself to see Kryik in his black armour with lines of red light covering the surface and Captain Anderson, in his uniform standing with an impressive stance, as much as a Jockey could anyway.

"Good to see you Commander, I brought you here to tell you what this mission was really about" Anderson says as he walks up to us, his short stature not lessening his aura of authority.

"This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run" Kryik adds.

Great, it is lucky the pilot is scared of me, either that or he would be shouting 'CALLED IT' when he discovers this.

"It wasn't too hard to figure out" I said to them "To be honest you made more suspicion with two Spectres on board as well as Anderson and, well, me"

It wasn't to be arrogant, I was put off duty, and would have kept like that if enough people though 'Butcher', they must have pulled a lot of strings to bring me here.

"Well, yes" Kryik said as his feet shifted, most likely just realising just how it sounded, "But, as you Infected Humans say, better safe than sorry"

"We're making a covert pick-up on Eden Prime" continued Anderson as he sat down on the high-rise chair on the side of the room, after a few panels were pressed, the chair rose from from the floor from the small Z.G.E. engine powering it up, he then was at eye level with the rest of us.

A/N: I just want to say, if this image is making you laugh, you're welcome, if you are pissed at Anderson made into a type of comedy relief, not intentional, then you don't know my address, I'll do what I like.

"Thats why we needed the Normandy's stealth systems online"

"What is the payload?" I ask, mild curiosity at what was so important.

"It was more of an accident that it was discovered in the first place, the Tank population was digging up the area for construction, and happened across a some kind of beacon, it was Prothean"

Interesting.

"What else?" I inquire, what the Spectres were doing here was another issue entirely, if we discovered something this big, then it would have kept within the G.R., unless.

"This is big Shepard" Anderson says as he sits back in the high-chair, "The last time Infected Humanity had discovered something like this, it jumped our technology forward at least two hundred years, and the researched it branched into, brought it forth another thousand"

"So why do we need to move it? Eden Prime is more than capable taking care of it" I ask, less risk of anyone else discovering it as well.

"Eden Prime does indeed have the facilities to properly look into it, but we had brought it up to a new issue, the fact that it could yield greater political potential"

He takes a great breath, "Tell me honestly Shepard, does the Witch population ever seem like they forgive the Turians for Shanxi?"

I actually gave a slight grimace before my face became straight again, "No Captain, not from what why can see"

My own father actually died in the war, I didn't know him, but I always remembered my mum looking so desolate when she looked at his photograph, it made me as angry as my mum at times, but then logic would take over and I would show them indifference.

Yet again, if I was a full blood Witch, I would have hated them a lot.

"It has always been the main problem why the G.R. and the Council races have had trouble making alliances," Kryik comments as he paces up and down the room, "Witch's call on attack, Turians say they lost numbers as well, Witch's counter with them being soldiers and themselves civilians, on and on it goes and no victor, it needs to stop now"

"And that is exactly why the G.R. decided to give the Beacon to the Turians at the Citadel, with this we can at least take away any prejudices from the Turian side, the Witch's... well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it"

I nodded solemnly, but I knew something else was afoot.

"Why me then?"

Anderson and Kryik look at each other before their eyes return to me,

"Kryik isn't just here for the Beacon" Anderson says to me, "He is here to evaluate you"

My eyes widen slightly, "A Spectre"

"Exactly," Anderson confirms, nodding at my quick assessment, "not only the Beacon, but an S.I. becoming a Spectre, it would break down many barriers that these old prejudices have made, it may even move the Witch's to some degree, it can be the first step to moving into an alliance and making the Galactic Line cease to be"

Codex: The Galactic Line is basically the border between G.R. and Citadel space, build over distrust from the incident of a Spectre blowing up the AI facility, special passes were grafted for access from either species to be allowed through it, and regular patrols ensure it is never passed, it is basically a wall between both of them, and the one of the main reasons why they have trouble forming an alliance.

Being brought back into service is one thing, with a higher rank is another, but being offered the possibility highest rank for another species that hates your species in general, someone out there must be looking out for me.

Or I was the only decent choice.

…

Yeah, that sounds more likely.

"Your military career is near perfect, your acts in the Skyllian Blitz and your part in Torfan show through as well, an expert under pressure and can make the tough choices, useful talents for anyone, and it is why I put your name forward for the Spectres"

Okay, now that is even more unbelievable, I kept my poker face however and looked at him.

"So, what do I have to do?"

"Eden Prime is only one of the many missions I plan for us to do, altho it would be easy to make you one on the spot, we have to do this properly, with me valuing your skills on the battlefield"

"So, I guess we will be seeing a lot of each other" Vakarian speaks up gruffly from the side of them.

"I would say no pressure, but that would be lying" says Anderson, "I know this is a lot to digest Commander, but let us focus on the mission for now"

He continued "You'll be in charge of the ground team, Nihlus will accompany and observe you as you secure the Beacon, once you have, get it to the ship ASAP"

"Whenever you're ready Captain" I said will determination, won't this be a story once she wakes up.

…

My thoughts were interrupted however, as the pilots voice sounds off above our heads,

"Uh, Captain, you might want to see this"

Anderson turns his head to the ceiling, "What is it?"

"Transmission from Eden Prime... its pretty bad"

Anderson then floats toward the screen picturing the images that were open by Vakarian, "On screen"

The peaceful forests were then replaced a battlefield, and numerous mass effect and Z.G.E. guns firing, an image of a large individual appears in a white armour set, with pink line detailing it.

She looks towards the camera and pulls it to the ground, shouting 'get down' as the battle nearly drowned out her voice.

The camera looked around frantically as blue energy bursts around the area, dirt kicks up in the air as explosions rocked the image around, another soldier, a Hunter, comes into view sending a request for evac before a shot rang off and he slumped to the ground.

But all the soldiers defending themselves now looked up at something out of sight, with men looking on with disbelief, a strange metallic echo sound screeched through the speakers, and the camera swung around to see a ship.

It was large, from what I could see, and resembled a squid, yet it was incredibly dangerous looking, the image suddenly stopped at several more explosions around the camera before blinking out.

"The signal cuts out after that, I don't need to say what that means"

No shit Sherlock.

"Take us in fast and quiet Joker" Anderson ordered as he looked at a freeze image of the 'Squid-Ship' "This mission just became a lot more complicated"

Indeed, a ship that could breach the defences that Eden Prime had set, it sounded impossible, but whatever it was, it was not going to be easy.

"Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up Commander" Anderson informs me as Kryik and Vakarian walk away to get suited up, I followed them out the comm room, with my claws scratching slightly, just beneath the nails.

In preparation of another battle.

Sabertooth - …

Me - …

Sabertooth - Why the fuck, have you skipped mine?

Me - Uh, well, it was a bit difficult to write up something, I had writers block and-

Sabertooth - But evidently, not for this one... (sharpening claw)

_Me - *Gulp*_


End file.
